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THE 



GIANTS' CAUSEWAY, 



a poem; 



BY WILLIAM HAMILTON DRUMMOND, D.D. 



c ■ 
Belfast t - •" 

PRINTED BY JOSEPH SMYTH, 

FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME & BROWNE, LONDON J 

DOIG & STEVENSON, EDINBURGH ; ARCHER & 

WIRLING, T. WARD, AND THE OTHER 

BELFAST BOOKSELLERS. 

1811. 



TO 

WILLIAM BRUCE, D.D. 

MEMBER OF THE BELFAST LITERARY SOCIETY, 

AND 

PRINCIPAL OF THE BELFAST ACADEMY,- 
THIS TESTIMONIAL 

OF 
GRATITUDE AND ESTEEM, 

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 

THE AUTHOR, 



PREFACE. 

■ 

1 HE coast of Antrim has long been a sub- 
ject of laudable curiosity, as it furnishes a fine 
field for geological enquiry, and presents a grand 
and novel spectacle to the eye of taste, in the wild 
sublimity of its promontories, the fantastic winding 
of its bays, and the romantic variety of its ciifls 
and rocks. 

That the reader may form a general idea of 
the topography of the coast, let him figure to his 
imagination a line extending from Belfast to the 
mouth of the Bann, through a circuit of sixty miles, 
and presenting some resemblance to the walls of a 
city, with all its bastions, curtains, and battlements, 
the stupendous masonry with which nature resists 
the force of a turbulent ocean. This line is in- 
tersected by a great variety of bays, at the extre- 
mity of each of which lies a valley, stretching in- 
to the country, generally divided by a stream of 
limpid water, and bounded by basaltic mountains, 
which form the eastern and western boundaries of 
each bay. The interior of the county might also 
be characterized by its vallies running in a direc- 
tion opposite to those of the coast. Thus the val- 
lies of the Six-mile -water and Gleawhirry, are op- 



VI PREFACE. 

posite to those of Larne and Glenarm ; the rivers 
of the former hastening to join the waters of Lough 
Neagh, while those of the latter empty themselves 
into the sea. 

The first and most eastern valley is that of the 
Lagan, commencing at Lisburn, or Hillsborough, 
and extending its varied and finely cultivated fields, 
sloping to the rising sun, along the mountains of 
Collin, Devis,* the Cave-hill, Carnmoney-hill, and 
the Knockagh. In examining these hills, which 
may be done with facility, by ascending some of the 
streams which run through their lateral vallies, par- 
ticularly those of the rivers Collin, Forth and Wood- 
burn, the geologist will find that they rest on a base of 
variegated sand-stone, dipping to the west. At least 
this is the lowest stratum which can be traced on the 
beach, at Ringin pointf, and along the roots of the 
Cave hill. This stratum probably reposes on yellow 
magnesian limestone, similar to that which emerges 
on the Holy wood shore ; — the limestone on grey- 
wacke, and the grey-wacke on schist or granite, and 
this, whether on an elephant, or a tortoise, I shall leave 
to more profound mineralogists to discover. A fine 



* Devis is 1400 feet high; the Cave-hill, at its greatest 
elevation, 1140; at M'Art's fort, 1100; Carnmoney hill, 79Q; 
and the Knockagh, 903. 

See Fasciculus fourth of the Belfast Literary Society, by 
W. Bruce, D.D. 

f The sand stone here contains clay galls ; a circumstance 
which, independent of its softness, would render it unfit for 
the purposes of architecture, as the galls drop out, and leave 
the stone full of cavities. 

See Jameson's Geognosy* 



PREFACE. VII 

section of this sand-stone may be seen at Mace- 
don point, arranged in many-coloured stripes, and 
cut by vertical veins of an unctuous argillaceous sub- 
stance, resembling fuller's earth. 

Extensive beds of clay, commonly of a red, some- 
times of a deep blue colour, and spotted, occur in the 
vallies of the Forth and Woodburn, and on the shores 
[ of Carrickfergns, where it has such tenacity that it is 
converted into bricks. In general, however, it con- 
tains too large a portion of silicious matter to admit 
this change. It is intersected by gypsum in veins 
which may vary from half an inch to two feet in 
thickness, and in such quantity that it is raised for 
exportation. The gypsum is fibrous in its structure, 
and in colour white, yellow, and reddish, also transpa- 
rent and silky. Dr. M'Donnell, a name not to be 
mentioned without praise for the ardour of his mine- 
ralogical researches, has observed that the fibres are 
always perpendicular to the plane of the hori- 
zon, that the crystallization has commenced from the 
sides of the vein in which it was formed, its extent on 
each side being distinctly marked by a line of separa- 
tion, and that where two veins meet, they do not cut, 
but are melted into each other, from which circum- 
stance it is inferred that they are of coeval formation.* 



* Rock salt is often found accompanying this formation, bat 
Ido not find that it has been discovered in the county of An- 
trim, though the strongest salt spring in Ireland, is in the es- 
tate of Noah Dalway, esq. near Carrickfergus. 

"The selenite of Mount Matre, near Paris, is divided into 
beautiful columns, like basalt - these have five, six, or seven 
sides, and are from one to two feet in diameter. It is also 
characterized by its containing petrefactions of quadrupeds 



Vlll PREFACE. 

The clay stratum is overlaid by a thin layer of bi- 
tuminous schist, and this by a blue limestone contain- 
ing the star stone, or vertebrae pentacrinites, the cor- 
nu ammonis, and anomia gryphus. To this succeeds 
a stratum of arenaceous limestone, often of a green 
hue, known in this district by the very appropriate 
name of mulatto, from its mixed nature, and the dif- 
ference of its colour from the snow-white limestone 
by which it is covered. This stratum abounds irt 
quartzy pebbles, and organic remains, particularly 
belemnites*, pectenites, echini, ostracites, cardia, the 
anomia gryphus, and a substance resembling gyp- 



and birds; which latter have been hitherto found only in this 
formation." 

Jameson's Geognosy. 

* The belemnite and echinus are often found in flint. The 
former when found either in limestone or mulatto, is generally 
of a yellow, calcareous, sparry texture on the outside, the cen- 
ter being of the same substance as that in which it is embedded. 
From some specimens of the echinus which I broke, it appears 
that they are a solid mass of the same material as that in which 
they lie, and contain no central crystallization ; but the place 
of the shell, in flint, is marked by a very thin sparry in- 
crustation. In the mulatto the shell is very distinctly preserved ; 
it has become of a sparry texture ; is much thicker than that 
of the urchin, now found in our seas; has no appearance of an 
opening having ever been at the top, but of two small orifi- 
ces near each longitudinal extremity of the base, by which 
the matter was injected. St. Pierre in his IVth Study of Na- 
ture, observes, " that many of the cornua ammonis, and sin- 
gle-shelled fossils, which, from their form, have resisted the 
pressure of the ground, have not ejected their animal matter, 
but exhibit it within them under the form of crystals, whereas 
the two-shelled are totally destitute of it." The observation 
will apply sometimes to the cornu ammonis, not to the echi- 
nus, as far as my observation extends. ...To the above list add 
the Mytilus crista gall '/, the dentalium, arco, tellina, and serpu- 
la, found in Collin glen, by Mr. Templeton. 



PREFACE. IX 

sura, which some suppose to be the pinna marina, so 
closelv conglomerated, and united by the arena* eous 
paste, that they seem, in some places, to compose 
almost the whole mass. 

Above the Mulatto lies a very thick stratum of 
white limestone, one of the purest carbonatesof lime, 
also containing belemnites in abundance, card i a more 
rarely, with flints ranged in horizontal Hues, and often, 
where it is traversed by a dyke, exhibiting a granular 
structure, like marble. The horizontal lines of its stra- 
tification being cut by vertical fissures, it has frequent- 
ly the appearance of huge quadrangular blocks, artifi- 
cially built on each other. Its snowy whiteness is 
strikingly and agreeably opposed to the dark basaltic 
precipices which rise magnificently above it, or share 
with it alternate possession of the beach ; and while it 
gives a clearness to the water, and a cheerfulness to 
the scene, affords a new instance of the beauty and 
harmony which nature produces by contrast. 

One of the most remarkable appearances which 
will next arrest the observer's attention, is the uncon- 
solidated stratum of mingled flints, limestone, and de- 
composed basalt, which immediately succeeds. The 
limestone is reddish, as if tinged by the oxydated iron 
of the basalt, the basalt friable as an earthy mould, 
and the flints shivery, as if they had undergone the 
action of intense heat. The flints, which lie in great- 
est number on the limestone, vary in colour from a 
light pink to a rosy red, and contain cavities with a 
yellow impalpable powder, or minute crystals. They 
are often striped, as if formed by successive deposi- 
tions, and exhibit manifest traces of corals, madre- 
pores, and other marine- exuviae, which are supposed 



X PREFACE. 

to have supplied the silicious matter, or to have served 
as its focus of attraction. 

Overtopping all is the great stratification of trap, 
with its subordinate divisions of green stone, porphy- 
ry-slate, trap-tufia, and amygdaloid. The solid trap 
and the amygdaloid alternate, as may be distinctly 
seen at the Knockagh, the former showing traces of 
incipient columnarity, the latter less rent into fissures, 
often very friable, and indented at its junction with 
the trap, thickly studded with zeolite, and of a dark 
grey, brown, or reddish colour. It would require fre- 
quent minute examinations to ascertain the order in 
which the different numerous strata of this formation 
succeed each other. There is also a stratum of an o- 
cherous vermilion red substance, which may be seen at 
the base of the precipice of the Cave-hill, but in much 
greater beauty and extent at Murlogh, and the Giants* 
Causeway. The porphyry slate, which may be easily 
distinguished by its slaty fracture, is ornamented with 
smail topaz-coloured crystals of chrysolite or olivin. 
Small brilliant crystals like sapphires, and opake crys- 
tals of shori, are found in some varieties of the trap ; 
that of Fairheadj which is so coarse as to resemble 
granite, contains augite. The vesicles of the amyg- 
daloid,* are almond-shaped, tubular, quadrangular, 
and a series of them is often connected together. They 



* This substance derives its name from the Greek u^cvy- 
elxXoc an almond, on account of its almond-shaped cavities.. 
These cavities vary from a line to an inch and a half, perhaps 
two inches in diameter. One of the finest specimens which I 
have seen was bought from one of the guides at the Giants' 
Caiiseway, by Dr. Ogilby. It is completely detached from 



PREFACE. XI 

are supposed to have been formed by air bubbles du- 
ring the deposition of the strata, and to have been af- 
terwards filled or lined by percolation, with the mat- 
ter by which they are now occupied. This is stea- 
tites, calcareous spar, calcedony, opal or zeolite. The 
last is very prevalent ; it is sometimes cubical, often 
stelliform, and in the beauty, delicacy, and arrange- 
ment of its crystals, vies with the thistle's down. 

As the characters of basaltic, or whin-stone moun- 
tains, the flcetz trap formation of Werner, are too ob- 
vious to be mistaken, the description of one may serve 
for the whole. On one side they generally present a 
steep precipice, and on the other fall away with a gra- 
dual slope. They are flat at the summit, whence they 
are denominated tabular, and in the bold outline of 
their profile, have the appearance of gigantic stairs, 
whence their German name of trap. 

To the valley of the Lagan succeed the vales of 
Gleno and Glynn ; the former, so named from its cir- 
cular shape, contains a beautiful water-fall, bleach- 
fields, and a very small village, situated so close to 
the bottom of the hill, that it is not observed by 
the traveller from the south, till he is immediately 
above it. On the beach near Gtynn, the anomia 
gryphus, and the vertebras pentacrinites, are found in 
abundance in a blue lime. To the N. W. stand the 
lofty and precipitous cliffs of Agnew's hill, said to be 
the loftiest hill in the county, and the village of 



every part of the parent rock, and forms a small brown box, 
which, when opened, displays a most beautiful crystallization. 
Dr. Ogilby has the merit of being the first discoverer of Stron- 
tian earth at Port na Spania. 



Xll PREFACE. 

Larne, at the distance of four miles east from it, in the 
valley beneath. E. of the bay of Lame, lies the penin- 
sula of Ma inguished by the long mural preci- 
pices of the Gobbins, v. hich may vary from 200 to 230 
feet in height. The limestone which disappears at 
the commencement of this precipice, again becomes 
visible at its termination at Port Muck. We find it 
again on the shores of Lame, but if is lost at the Black 
cave. The next prominent object of attention is the 
promontory of Ballygelly, three miles distant from 
Larne.* Mere masses of irregularly prismatic basalt, 
and a range of gigantic pillars are first observed. 

The characteristic conformation of basaltic coun- 
tries prevails in the glens of Glenarai, Glenclye, Car- 
nalloch, and GlenarifF. The channel of Glenarm riv- 
er running over a bed of whin, abounds in cavities 
which vary in diameter from a few inches to several 
feet; a fact, which, as I have not seen it mentioned 
before, I have now deemed not unworthy of notice. 
These cavities are generally spherical, and shaped like 
the concavity of a pot, though they sometimes assume 
an elliptical form, as if two of them were united into 
one. They do not appear to have been formed by the 
fall of water, for they occur in a smooth bed of rock 
where there is no fall. Dr. McDonnell ingeniously 
conjectures, from my description, that they may have 
been formed by the wearing out of the globular con- 



* An unsuccessful attempt was made many years ago to 
discover coals at the Bank-heads, near Larne — Phosphores- 
cent sand -stone is found in the parish of Cairn castle, and some 
indications of a lead vein have lately presented themselves in 
Island Magee For a more minute account of Larne, Bal- 
lygelly, &c. consult the notes. 



PREFACE. Xlll 

cretions, with which trap is known to abound. It is 
thus that Nature lodges the seeds of dissolution in her 
most durable forms. 

The shores of Glenarm are composed of white 
limestone split into numerous fissures, and intersected 
on the beach by several massy dykes. One of these 
dvkes measures 26 feet in width, and presents the sin- 
gular appearance of granular limestone, inserted in a 
wedge-like form, in the center of its surface. 

At the distance of five miles from Glenarm, rises 
the sharp promontory of Garron point, exhibiting a 
beautifully diversified trapose outline, and projecting 
far into the sea, on a limestone base which has been 
wrought into caverns by the surge. Beyond this, and 
the romantic vale of Glenariff) on the western shores 
of Cushendall bay, we meet with a series of new ma- 
terials, a red sand-stone, in beds five or six feet thick, 
dipping to the east at a high angle ; porphyry in un- 
conformable strata, of a yellowish and blueish exter- 
nal surface, containing veins of jasper; and a curious 
breccia, or pudding-stone consisting of rounded peb- 
bles of quartz imbedded in a red sand-stone cement. 

The caverned rock on which Red Bay castle stands, 
and the grotesque caves of Cushendun, are formed of 
this material. Here also are several dykes; one cros- 
ses the road on the west side of Red Bay, and may be 
30 or 40 feet wide ; the second, observable on the 
beach, is only nine inches broad, running in an irre- 
gular direction, and containing veins of calcareous 
spar, which do not extend to the adjoining beds. A 
third is four feet broad, of coarse-grained whin, and 
apparently consisting of three vertical strata. 

In Cushleak we meet with gneiss, mica slate, and 



XIV rilEFJLCB. 

granite. The shores of this region are bold, but not 
perpendicular, and they, as well as the neighbouring 
hills, by their rounded outline, indicate an arrange- 
ment different from that of the basaltic district. A dark 
blue primary or transition limestone with veins of 
chlorite and calcareous spar, occurs at the point of 
Tor; and at Murloch the primitive strata are seen 
dipping to the N. W. in an angle of about 45°. Free- 
stone occurs here between the strata of trap. Near 
the center of the grand semicircular sweep of this 
district, stands the conical mount of Drimnakill, 
with its massy pillars pointing to the sea. The ba- 
saltic formation which is here renewed, attains its 
highest elevation atFairhead, rising in proud mag- 
nificence over alternate strata of freestone and coal, 
and thence gradually sloping down to the strand of 
Ballycastle. The limestone which had disappeared, 
rises again to claim our attention under new circum- 
stances at Kenbann. Here it is seen both above and 
below, and imbedded in the basalt, and at Port Cairn 
it forms one side of a cave, whose other side is of 
trap. At Knocksoghy and Carrie karede it is lost 
under a solid unstratified mass of trap, but emerges at 
the high cliffs of Lirrybann, and forms a beautiful 
and diversified barrier to Ballintoy and Whitepark 
strand. Beyond this the basaltic arrangement keeps 
undivided possession of the shore for several miles. 
It attains its greatest altitude at Pleaskin, and thence 
slopes away to the Bushfoot strand, exhibiting a most 
regular stratification of columnar, irregularly pris- 
matic, and tabular basalt. West of Dunluce cas- 
tle the limestone appears once more, forming a pre- 
cipitous shore, and split into a variety of fantastic 



TREFACE. XV 

shapes. It is lost at Portrush, where the chert, 
petrosilex, or silicious basalt, abounding with impres- 
sions of the cornu ammonis, many of which are pyri- 
tous, and emulate the splendour of gold, rises to puz- 
zle the geologist. The limestone emerges for the last 
time, in this extensive range of coast, at Magilligan 
strand in the county of Londonderry, a strand of great 
beauty, and of such extent, that the whole army of 
Phorcus, and all the marine deities might find it spa- 
cious enough for a review. 

Having taken this rapid view of the general fea- 
tures of the coast, let us return to the Giants' Cause- 
way, the principal object of our present attention. 

The Giants' Causeway consists of three moles, 
composed of basaltic columns, projecting into the sea 
from the middle of the semicircular bay of Port Nof- 
fer. The largest of these moles, known by the name 
of the grand Causeway, extends in a sloping direc- 
tion from the base of the clitf* about 300 feet, when 
it immerges into the ocean. Supposing it once to 
have had a horizontal position, it has received a slight 
twist, by which the pillars, where it dips into the sea, 
have an inclination to the east, while those at the 
commencement have a small inclination to the west. 
On the east side stands the giants' loom, a collonnade, 
about 36 feet high ;* and in the opposite clifFmay be 
seen a group of columns known by the name of the 
organ, to tbe pipes of which instrument it has a stri- 
king 1 resemblance. 



* Here also may be seen the giant's well, chair, and thea- 
tre. The king and parliament too, in full divan! 



XVI PREFACE. 

Each of the moles, beheld from a short distance, 
presents the appearance of a most regular pavement; 
nor is the admiration excited by this regularity dimin- 
ished on closer inspection. It is now seen that it is 
not a superficial covering of mosaic, but a solid struc- 
ture of pillars united to pillars, close as the cells of a 
honeycomb. The pillars are formed of a remarka- 
ably fine-grained, compact basalt,* and are separa- 
ble into distinct joints or articulations, which may 
vary in length from six to twelve inches, and in 
breadth, from twelve to twenty. The upper and low- 
er extremity of each joint is concave or convex. 
The concave is indented with a groove near the cir- 
cumference, and furnished with a projection from one 
of its sides, or angles, by which it is locked so close- 
ly to the ball of its respective joint, that a separation 
is not often effected without a fracture of that pro- 
jection. The prevailing forms are pentagonal, hexa- 
gonal, and heptagonal. Some of them on first inspeo 



* The Wernerians, I understand, call it green stone. I 
must, however, be allowed to retain the name by which it has 
been so long and so universally known.. ..The word basalt is 
derived by some writers from the Greek Bci<rczvi?&>, I use as a 
touch-stone ; by others, from the Hebrew Barzal, iron or Ba- 
sal, baked or burned. Pliny describes it as a rock of iron co- 
lour and hardness. " Invenit eadem JEgyptus in ^Ethiopia 
quem vocant basaltem, ferrei colons atque duritia^; unde et no- 
men ei dedit." The celebrated statue of Memnon, said to emit 
musical sounds, when struck by the first rays of the sun, was 
formed of this rock. 

It is generally described as of a greyish black colour, 
crystalline texture, compact, fine splintery, or flat conchoidal 
fracture; specific gravity, 2, 9; strikes fire with flint; has a 
metallic sound ; affects the magnetic needle, and is fusible 
per se. 

See Kirwan's Mineralogy. 



PREFACE. XV11 

tion might be mistaken for squares, by reason of the 
shortness of one or two of their sides. 

Between each of the Causeways are large rounded 
masses of irregularly prismatic basalt. To the west- 
ward at Port Coon, the rock is composed of distinct 
globular concretions. These concretions may be about 
a foot in diameter, though often not more than two or 
three inches, formed of concentric pellicles like an o- 
nion, and dotted with crystals of cubical iron py- 
rites. 

Of the whin dykes which abound almost every 
where on the coast, a fine specimen may be seen at 
the head of the grand Causeway,* and another at the 
Sea-gull isle. These dykes are walls of whinstone, 
trap, or prismatic basalt, varying from a few inches 
to 40 or 50 feet in breadth, penetrating to an unknown 
depth, and often attended by a softening, or an in- 
duration, and a dislocation of the strata through 
which they pass. Sometimes two of these walls or 
veins are seen running in parallel lines, and when 
they are interrupted by a chasm or arm of the sea, 
they rise on the opposite side with the same distance 
and parallelism. Thus a continuation of the Antrim 
dykes is traced on the Scottish shores. 

Let us now attend for a moment to the general 
impression made on the mind by the contemplation 6f 
the scenery of Port Nofter. As to the Giants' Cause- 



*This dyke is 15 or 16 feet wide, and composed of hori- 
zontal prisms. The pillars on the west side of it are horizon- 
tal, those on the east, vertical. Dykes derive their name from 
serving as fences in the North of Scotland. 

See Dr. Richardson's paper on Whin Dykes. 

2 



XV 111 PREFACE. 



way, the first feelings of some on beholding it are 
those of disappointment, arising probably from their 
having formed extravagant ideas of its magnitude.* 
The savage grandeur of Fairhead, or of Port na Spa- 
ilia, Pleaskin, and Bengore, contemplated from the 
water, would probably reflect a more faithful image 
of the picture in their minds. The Giants' Causeway 
itself is comparatively small and insignificant ; and it 
derives its chief importance from the surrounding 
scenery, and from association with its creative cause. 
But even the scenery of Port Noft'er, especially if be- 
held on n serene day, is not of that imposing kind 
which immediately overwhelms the senses with aston- 
ishment. It is sedate and majestic, not ostentatious 
and obtrusive. Its character is to be developed not 
by a rapid giance, but attentive examination. It may 
be compared to that species of picture named pa- 
norama, and to comprehend its beauty it must be con- 
sidered in detail. 

Such however are far from being the feelings of 
the majority of spectators. Many at the first glance 
are penetrated with admiration, and are ready to ex- 
claim, " Here. is the temple, and the altar of nature, 



* Those who have been accustomed to rocky and mountain- 
ous scenery, will behold such scenes as the coast of Antrim af- 
fords, under very different impressions from those who are 
familiar only with pasture grounds and gardens. An inhabi- 
tant of the Alps would probably see but little grandeur in our 
basaltic mountains, though a Cockney who has never strayed 
beyond the suburbs of London would be struck with as much 
terror as Gray felt in the vale of Keswick. I have heard of a 
colonel who was so much overpowered by his fears on going 
down the approach to the Giants' Causeway, that he required 
.*wo or three brother officers to support him! 



PREFACE. XIX 

devised by her own ingenuity, and executed with a 
symmetry and grace, a grandeur and a boldness 
which Mature only could accomplish. Those cliffs fa- 
ced with magnificent columns; those broken precipi- 
ces of vermilion-coloured rock ; yon insulated pil- 
lars, obelisks erected before Greece boasted of her ar- 
chitectural skill, or Egypt laid the foundation of her 
pyramids, proclaim the power and wisdom of their 
creator. This mole too, so firmly bound and cemen- 
ted, surpasses the harmony of art, and in stability 
and grandeur, sets all efforts of rivalship at defi- 
ance. It is a monument saved from the convulsion 
which sunk a continent, and produced the disruption 
of the isles. For a period beyond all written records 
t has borne the fury of the waves and tempests, yet 
still it is solid and unimpaired as when it was first laid, 
and it seems to claim a duration coeval with the struc- 
ture of the world/' 

After examining the external appearance of the 
scene, the mind is naturally prompted to enquire into 
the cause of so extraordinary a formation. The sim- 
ple inhabitants of the coast, seeing it composed with 
such an appearance of art and regularity, and unable 
to account for it by any of the known operations of 
nature, ascribed it to the hands of giants."* Fin Mac 



* General Vallancey says that the old name of the Giants' 
Causeway is Cloch na Fomoraic, or the stone of the Carthagi. 
nians . " Fomoraic may signify sea commanders, but it also 
signifies a Giant, or great person, from Fo y a prince, mor, great, 

raic, strong or mighty." "It was also called Binguthar, the 

Giants' cape, or rather the sacred or admirable promontory, 
from GutJiar, Gaur, Goor, a Druid, prophet, sacred admirable 
person or thing, and Bin t Ben, a cape or headland. 

Collectanea, 



XX PREFACE. 

Cumhal, the great hero of Irish romance, and who, 
according to some traditions, rose to the enormous 
stature of 15 cubits, became the imaginary architect. 
The columnar appearance of the little island of Staffa 
which lies nearly in the same meridian, suggested 
the idea that it had formerly been connected to 
the shores of Port No'ffer, and that the object of the 
Irish Titans, in the construction of so stupendous a 
work, was to facilitate their march to the Hebrides, 
to chastise the inhabitants of those islands, for their 
predatory excursions to the shores of Ireland. 

It is curious to observe how generally the belief 
in Giants has prevailed. The classical reader does 
not require to be reminded of the distinguished part 
which they act in heathen mythology. The inhabi- 
tants of Iceland ascribe the vast basaltic masses of that 
island to the same agency ; and we have only to con- 
sult the Edda to find that Giants, "or the sons of 
frost/' have the same important task to fill in the my- 
thology of the north, as in that of Greece. The ge- 
neral ascription of such phenomena as exceed the or- 
dinary power of mortals, to the labour of Giants, 
shows the proneness of the human mind to theorize, 
and its willingness to adoptor invent any theory rather 
than remain in suspense. 

In Ma Geoghegan* history of Ireland written in 
French and published in Paris, M,DCC,LVIII. the 

following curious passage occurs in the first Chapter. 

"Lachaussee des Geants est-elle un ouvrage de 
la nature ou de Parte? c'est une question controversee 
parmi les Scavans d'Angleterre & d'Irelande. Ceux 
qui pretendent que c'est un efifet de la nature, 



PREFACE. XXI 

le prouvent geometriquement : lis citent un tfoe- 
oreme d'Euclide, suivant Iequel il n'y a que trois 
figures qui puissent former une surface unie & con- 
tinue, scavoir, six triangles equilateraux, quatre 
quarres et trois hexagones. Or, disent ils, ces regies 
de I'artn'ontpointtete observes dans la chaussee de Ge- 
ants, qui est faites de poligones a cotes inegaux, quoi- 
qu J ils s'adaptent fort bien aux cotes opposes des pil- 
iers voisins, ce qui ne peut etre attribue qu'a une 
intelligence superieure: d'ailleurs, ajoutent-ils, la 
jonction des pieces qui forment les piliers, paroit etre 
un ouvrage de la nature : car dans toutes les autres 
colonnes tant anciennes que modernes, les pieces sont 
jointes par des surfaces planes; et on ne concoit pas 
comment Particulation des pierres qui composent 
cette chaussee, peut avoir ete faites sans une infinite 

d'outils qui nous sont inconnus Ce raisonnement, 

quoique plausible, n' est pas bien satisfaisant; car ou- 
tre qu' il ne suffit pas de ne pas concevoir une chose 
pour en pouvoir nier l'existence, il est certain qui 
les arts ont eu leurs revolutions, et qu'il y en a eu 
beaucoup qui ont ete en vigueur autrefois, et qui ne 
sont pas parvenus jusqu'a nous. 

We need not wonder at this observation, since 
there are many even now among the vulgar great, as 
well as among the vulgar little, who are contented 
with the theory of the giants. Philosophers however 
have long been of a different opinion, and it now re- 
mains only to trace the history of their enquiries. 
This task has been so fully and ably excuted by Kir- 
wan and Hamilton, that little more is left for me, 
than the pleasure of abridging their more detailed ac- 
counts. 



XXH PKEFACE. 

Towards the conclusion of the 17th century, when 
a spirit of philosophical investigation began to be dif- 
fused by the exertions of the Royal Society, descrip- 
tions were written, drawings made, and theories for- 
med, to account for the formation of so extraordinary 
a phenomenon. The descriptions and drawings were 
in general very incorrect. The wild and rugged sce- 
nery of Port Noffer was adorned with groves and hou- 
ses, by the imagination of the artist; and a philoso- 
phical observer, a Cambridge Master of arts, descri- 
bed the basaltic pillars as four-squared cylinders, with- 
out joints ! 

In 1740, the attention of philosophers which had 
lain dormant for nearly half a century upon this sub- 
ject, was again excited by two beautiful engravings 
of the Giants' Causeway, from paintings by Mrs. Su- 
sannah Drury, which had obtained the premium ap- 
pointed for the encouragement of arts, in Ireland. 
Soon after this, Dr. Pococke made a tour of the coun- 
ty of Antrim, and gave a theory of basaltes, in which 
lie supposes that they were formed by successive fits 
•f precipitation from a watery medium, that at first 
they were erect cylinders, touching only in right lines, 
and that while they were yet in a soft state, they 
yielded to the encreasing pressure from above, and 
spread themselves out so as to fill up the vacuities, and 
thus became polygonal articulated pillars. 

The circumstance which led to a more minute in- 
vestigation of the origin of basalt, was the discovery 
of some ancient volcanoes, now extinct, in Auvergne, 
by M. Guethard, of the Royal Academy of Paris, in 
1757. Desmaretz, in 1763, travelling through the 
same country, saw a multitude of basaltic pillars, and 



PREFACE. XX12I 

afterwards some articulated columns similar to those 
of the Giants' Causeway, which, from their eternal 
appearance, and concomitant minerals, he pronoun- 
ced to be of volcanic origin, and supposed that gra- 
nite was the mother stone. The same opinion derived 
support from M. Raspe, in 1771 ; and in 1774, M. 
Monnet deeming it absurd to suppose that so regular 
a conformation could take place during a volcanic e- 
ruption, concluded that basaltes were formed in the 
bosom of the volcano where they were originally fu- 
sed. Mr. Hamilton espoused this hypothesis, and en- 
deavoured to prove that they were crystallized from 
a state of tranquil fusion by slow refrigeration in ihe 
focus of a volcano, which was rent and exposed by sub- 
sequent convulsions. 

The Neptunists were not inactive during this pe- 
riod. In 1777, the volcanic hypothesis met a formi- 
dable adversary in the celebrated Bergman. And at 
length, the arguments adduced by Neptunists and 
Volcanists seemed to balance each other so equally, 
that philosophers began to suspect that basalt might 
originate in some instances from water, and in others 
from fire. It was reserved for Werner of Fribourg to 
give a deadly blow* to the volcanic system. Having 
observed the transition of basalt into wacken, ofwack- 
en into clay, and of this clay into quartzy sand, a 
substance never suspected of having any but an aque- 
ous origin, by an easy application of the fundamental 
laws of mineralogy, inferred that basalt must also 
have been formed in the same fluid. 



* Kirwau. 



XXIV PREFACE. 

Br. Richardson has lately distinguished himself by 
several papers on basaltic subjects, and his decided 
hostility to every theory except his own, which he 
has lately advanced. He does not, as far as I know, 
attempt any explanation of the mode in which basal- 
tes were formed, but confines himself to the general 
structure and arrangement of the strata. He contends 
that all our present strata are the undisturbed re- 
mains of a great tract of country which has been 
swept away by some powerful cause acting vertically 
from above. The Cave-hill, Sleimis, Banyavenagb, 
and other basaltic mountains, are, according to his 
conjecture, like so many rocks which have withstood 
the powerful corrosion of the force which swept away 
the surrounding and connecting materials; a corrosion 
so violent, that it not only scooped out extensive vai- 
lies, but stripped whole mountainous districts, as that 
of the Sandy braes, which is four miles in diameter, 
of the basaltic stratification with which he supposes it 
to have been covered. What this cause was, the Doc- 
tor leaves his readers to conjecture, and he is decided 
that it was neither fire nor water. Was the tail of 
Whiston's comet the besom of destruction with which 
our vallies were swept ? 

To enter into an examination of this hypothesis, 
would be incompatible with the limits of a preface, al- 
ready so prolix. Nevertheless, it may be observed that 
if the strata, were once horizontal, some powerful 
cause acting from beneath, such a cause as we know 
to exist, may have caused the present dislocation: and 
the same cause might also produce the perpendicular 
elevation of our promontories, and their disruption 
from the strata, with which they were once continuous. 






i 



i ; 



m¥* 



U*< 



PREFACE. XXV 

We know of no cause in nature acting vertically from 
above, in the mariner supposed by Dr. Richardson, 
and we may question the philosophy of assuming new 
and unknown agencies, while those which are known 
are fully adequate to produce the ellect. That there 
is a known cause fully adequate, is obvious to all who 
have read of the effects of a volcano, not to speak of 
the more powerful and extensive influence of earth- 
quakes. If any cause had swept away a superincum- 
bent stratification, we should expect to find the debris 
along our shores, forming gentle declivities down to 
the beach, and not a continued series of stupendous 
precipices, three, four, and five hundred feet high. Or 
shall we suppose that the strata were carried in an op- 
posite direction, and that Lough Neagh was the grand 
Recipient prepared by nature for absorbing the vast 
debris ? the most fiery Huttonian could not desire a 
more sweeping fact than this. 

" That a great system of disintegration has been 
carried on, and is still in progress, is sufficiently 
apparent. But we see where the debris has been 
transported, in the alluvial soil bounding the channel 
of our rivers. Play fair supposes rivers in the lapse 
of ages fully competent to produce vallies, and conse- 
quently cause a discontinuity of the strata. Eut why 
not suppose original inequalities produced by particu- 
lar deposites ; or, what is more probable, by a pertur- 
bing force from beneath ? 

" Obliquity of direction, the Dr. observes, must 
have been the result of a disturbing cause from below, 
whereas, parallelism, and a steady rectilineal course, 
distinguish the basaltic arrangement of this promonto- 
ry." (Bengore.) 

3 



XXVI PREFACE. 

Have not the whole of the strata of the promonto- 
ry in question an oblique direction, though parallel 
with respect to each other ? But though we had not 
these unequivocal proofs of a disturbing cause from 
beneath, its agency, notwithstanding, might be admit- 
ted, A disturbing force does not necessarily imply 
the universal obliquity, contortion, and disruption of 
the strata. Such a concussion as was felt by the great- 
er part of Europe, at the time of the eartho^ake of 
Lisbon might produce awful changes in the general 
system, might bury half a continent in the waves, and 
leave the other half without any change in the rela- 
tive position of its materials. 

From the similarity of the materials which com- 
pose Rathlin and the opposite coast of Antrim, it has 
been conjectured that they w r ere once united. And 
it is not impossible that Rathlin may have been actu- 
ally severed from Ireland, though it seems more pro- 
bable that the strata by which they were connected, 
nay, that a tract of country extending to the Hebrides, 
and literally joining StafFa to the Giants' Causeway, 
has been engulfed in the deep. 

In the third book of the following poem and notes, 
I have attempted to give a brief description of the 
three principal theories which endeavour to account for 
the formation of basaltes, without having professed 
a decided attachment to any. 

On a subject in which such a diversity of opinion 
prevails among the most distinguished philosophers, 
it is by no means easy to arrive at a determinate con- 
clusion. The favourite hypothesis of yesterday is o- 
verthrown by the newly-discovered facts of to-day. 
The candid enquirer, who has not been educated as 



PREFACE. XXVll 

the disciple of any school, will often find his situation 
similar to that of Menippus in Lucian. The argu- 
ments brought by one class of philosophers were puc 
with such force, that he could not deny the very same 
substance to be warm, which others, by arguments 
equally strong, demonstrated to be cold, though he 
was perfectly assured that it was impossible for the 
same thing to be both hot and co\d at the same time. 
Now the aqueous, and now the igneous theory pre- 
vails. We must leave it to time, and the accumula- 
tion of new facts to decide between them. 

An amateur, like me, who has not advanced beyond 
the threshold of the temple of Geological Science, must 
beg indulgence of the reader for presuming to touch 
this subject. 

" Into the hell of hells I have presumed, 
A sacred guest, and breathed infernal air." 

There is more reason for this apology 3 as the subject 
is already in the hands of one fully qualified to do it 
justice. From Dr. Mac Donnell, the zealous friend 
and encourager of genius in all its departments, and 
to whose liberal communications I have been fre- 
quently and largely indebted, the world may soon ex- 
pect a detailed and satisfactory account of the miner- 
alogy of the county of Antrim. 

From my esteemed friend, Mr. S. Bryson, I have 
received most of the derivations of the Irish names 
which occur in the notes. 

Mount Colli) er, Nov. 1811. 



ERRATA. 

Page 30, line 10, for new-born, read new-formed. — 
page 97, line 9, for entwine read untwine — 139, line 3 from 
the bottom, for lime- stone, read sand-stone — see the preface 
for a more minute account of the strata of this hill. — 1 44, 
I. 5, for quartz, read calcareous spar — 169, 1. 16 from the bot- 
tom, for exaggeration, read aggravation. — Besides these, there 
are several typographical errors which the reader may easily 
detect and rectify. 

POEMS EY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

The Battle of Trafalgar, a poem in two books, price 
5s. British. 

Translation of the first Book of Lucretius into English 
verse; for character see Monthly Review, Dec. 1S09. price 5s. 

Printed for Longman, &c. London; Doig and Steven- 
son, Edinburgh ; and Archer and Ward, Belfast. 



THE 



GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 



ARGUMENT. 
Address to the Genius of the shores... .Morning....General 
description of the coast of Antrim....Giants' Causeway.... 
Question whence it originated....Fion Mac Cumhal....His 
object in connecting Ireland to Staffa by a mole. ...Con- 
struction of the Causeway....Fion's cave....March of the 
Giants....Albin struck with dismay, invokes the aid of the 
Scandinavian Gods. ...Odin.... He commands the ministers of 
his power to destroy the mole....The Giants changed into 
stone... .Ossian....Traditionary and historic recollections.... 
...Ancient flourishing state of Learning in Ireland..... 
Honours, influence, persecution and extinction of the Bards 
....The Druid's altar....His prophecy....Columba„..Dunluce 
castle....Contrast of the present state of civilization and 
improvement, with the former barbarous manners of the 
country... Address to the Lagan... 



THE 



GIANTS* CAUSEWAY, 



BOOK FIRST. 



C>OME lonely Genius of my natal shore, 
From cave or bower, wild glen, or mountain hoar; 
And while by ocean's rugged bounds I muse^ 
Thy solemn influence o'er my soul diffuse j 
Whether thou wanderest o'er the craggy steep, 
Where the lorn spirits of the tempest weep, 
Or rov'st with trackless footsteps o'er the waves, 
Or wak'st the echoes of thy hundred caves; 
With joy I hail thy visionary form, 
Rough, dark, august, and clad in night and storm ; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

To me more dear thy rocky realm by far, 
The cliff, the whirlwind, and the billowy war, 
Than e'en the loveliest scenes which Flora yields, 
Her myrtle bowers, or incense-breathing fields. 

Yet mid thy rocks might some wild flowrets bloom, 
And first for me exhale their sweet perfume, 
Yielding a chaplet to my vagrant muse, 
Blooming and pearled with fresh Parnassian dews ; 
Though tempests roared in every dark-browed cave, 
And wild beneath me burst the yawning wave, 
O'er the high steep how ardent would I rise, 
Elate with hope to seize the glorious prize ! 

How sweet to wander here when orient day 
Tinges with roseate hue the milky spray ! 
What time the Spring from Winter's bondage clear, 
Wakes into life and joy the infant year; 
When smile the cloudless heavens, and western gales 
Sport in the tumbling billows' glassy vales. 
See ! where exulting o'er the azure field, 
The day's bright regent lifts his golden shield, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. • j 

Round, dazzling, vast, ethereal world of flame, 
That warms, illumes, sustains this beauteous frame. 
Roll on bright orb, in peerless splendour roll ; 
To worlds on worlds the life-diffusing soul : 
Around thy path what nameless glories stream, 
Fire the blue vault, and o'er the billows gleam, 
As if the heavens revealed to mortal sight, 
Their topaz pavements in a blaze of light ; 
And through the morn's red portals poured abroad, 
Life, love, and rapture, from the throne of God. 
Burnished with gold, the cliffs resplendent shine, 
And cast their shadows in the glancing brine, 
Trembling and soft, as though the magic hand 
Of some cerulean nymph, in colours bland, 
Had traced the scene, and back to nature gave 
Her beauteous image from the pictured wave. 
Light flit the vapours o'er the distant hill, 
The prospect opens wide and wider still ; 
Cantire's blue heights with purple radiance glow, 
And Jura's paps yet white with winter snow ; 
Bright o'er the billows shine the sparkling isles, 
And heaven on earth with boundless beauty smiles. 



6 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

O thou whose soul the muses' lore inspires, 
Whose bosom science warms, or genius fires, 
If nature charm thee in her wildest forms, 
Throned on the cliff 'midst cataracts and storms ; 
Or with surpassing harmony arrayed, 
In pillared mole, or towering colonnade, 
Seek Dalriada's wild romantic shore — 
Wind through her vallies, and her capes explore. 
Let folly's sons to lands far distant roam, 
And praise the charms of every clime but home, 
Yet sure such scenes can Dalriada boast, 
As please the painter and the poet most ; 
Swift torrents foaming down the mountain side, 
Rocks that in clouds grotesque their summits hide, 
Gigantic pyramids, embattled steeps, 
Bastions and temples nodding o'er the deeps, 
Aerial bridges o'er vast fissures thrown, 
Triumphal arches, gods of living stone, 
iEolian antres, thunder-rifted spires, 
And all the wonders of volcanic fires. 
Here broken, shattered, in confusion dread, 
Towers, bridges, arches, gods and temples spread : 



THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 7 

Stupendous wrecks, where awful wildness reigns! 
While all th J ideal forms which fancy feigns 
Sweep the dun rack, and to the poet's eyes, 
In many a strange embodied shape arise. 
In scenes like these did Collins first behold 
Pale Fear, and Danger's limbs of Giant mould; 
Gray poured the sorrows of his Cambrian lyre, 
And mighty Shakespeare breathed heaven's pure ethe- 
real fire. 

Ye cliffs and grots where boding tempests wail, 
Ye terraced capes, ye rocks, ye billows hail : 
Amazing scene, how wild, how wondrous grand, 
In circuit vast, the pillared shores expand ! 
Great fane of God ! where nature sits enshrined, 
Pouring her inspiration o'er the mind. — 
Mid pointed obelisks, and rocky bowers, 
And tessellated moles, and giant towers, 
She reigns sublime ; while round her throne repair 
The fleet-winged spirits of the sea and air, 
And through yon pillars, organ of the blast, 
When sounding Boreas bends the groaning mast, 



8 THE GIANTS CAUSEWAY. 

Bid the long deep majestic anthem rise, 
In mighty concert to the echoing skies, 
And warring floods 

Dark o'er the foam-white waves, 
The giants' pier the war of tempests braves, 
A far projecting, firm, basaltic way 
Of clustering columns wedged in dense array; 
With skill so like, yet so surpassing art, 
With such design, so just in every part. 
That reason pauses, doubtful if it stand 
The work of mortal, or immortal hand. 

Ye favoured few, whom nature's partial care 
Leads through the realms of ocean, earth and air; 
Who read with piercing eye her various laws, 
Mark each effect, and trace the latent cause ; 
But chief do thou Mac Donnell, taught to scan 
Each form and feature of the beauteous plan, 
Declare did Ocean, in his secret bed, 
When erst his waves the shoreless world o'erspread* 
Or central fires, or fierce volcanic flame, 
In sulphurous gulf profound, the wonder frame ? 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. < 

'The sportive fancy of th' untutored swain, j 
To wonder prone, and slave to error's reign, 
Unskilled to search how nature's plastic hand 
Moulds the rough rock, and forms the solid land ; 
To Fion, ruler of the giant line, 
Ascribes the glory of the strange design; 
And fondly deems, though reason spurn the thought, 
That human power the massy fabric wrought. 
Nor let the sage, in lettered pride severe, 
The simple legend with impatience hear. 

From Albin oft, when darkness veiled the pole, 
Swift o'er the surge the tartaned plunderers stole. 
And Erin's vales with purple torrents ran, 
Beneath the claymores of the murd'rous clan j 
Till Cumhal's son, to Dalriada's coast, 
Led the tall squadrons of his Finnian host, 
Where his bold thought the wondrous plan designed. 
The proud conception of a giant mind, 
To bridge the ocean for the march of war, 
And wheel round Albin's shores his conquering car. 

For many a league along the quarried shore, 
.Each storm-swept cape the race gigantic tore; 



10 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

And though untaught by Grecian lore to trace 
The Doric grandeur, or Corinthian grace; 
Not void of skill in geometric rules, 
With art disdaining all the pride of schools, 
Each mighty artist, from the yielding rock, 
Hewed many a polished, dark, prismatic block; 
One end was modelled Like the rounded bone, 
One formed a socket for its convex stone ; 
Then side to side and joint to joint they bound, 
Columns on columns locked, and mound on mound: 
Close as the golden cells which bees compose, 
So close they ranged them in compacted rows, 
Till rolling time beheld the fabric rise, 
Span the horizon, and invade the skies, 
And, curved concentric to the starry sphere, 
Mount o'er the thunder's path, and storm's career t 
To Stafia's rock th' enormous arch they threw, 
And Albin trembled as the wonder grew. 

Thus Death and Sin, when from the realms of night, 
They traced through chaos the archangel's flight, 
Chained to hell's beach a mole of wondrous length. 
And raised a bridge of adamantine strength. 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 11 

Connecting earth and hell ; a spacious road, 
Smooth, sloping downward to th' accurs'd abode. 

When first to StafTa's cavern'd shores they came, 
They reared a palace of stupendous frame, 
"Worthy their chief, and honoured by his name : 
Deep in the surge, the broad dense base they spread, 
And raised to heaven the massy columns' head ; 
High rose the rock-woYe arch, and o'er the flood, 
Like Xeptune's fane the pillared structure stood, 
Solemn, and grand beyond the laboured pile 
Of Gothic fane, or minster's vaulted aisle. 
Oft has its wild harmonious echoes rung, 
As minstrels sweet to deeds of glory strung 
Their deep-toned harps, or warrior chieftains strong 
Raised the loud chorus of the martial song. 
Now the lone sea-bird's melancholy wail 
Sounds through the vault, and leads them urmuriog sale - 
While thundering Ocean all his billows calls, 
And rolls in foam along the fluted walls. 
That back return such harmony of sound. 
As if an hundred bards were ranged around, 



12 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAYS 

Bowed o'er the columns, striving to disarm 
The tempest's rage by music's sweetest charm ; 
Or Ossian's thrilling harp, suspended high, 
Trilled by iEolian minstrels' pensive sigh, 
Awoke such notes as saints delighted hear. 
Or angel spirits pour on mortal ear- 
Now armed for war, along their iron road, 
Stern in their ire, the giant warriors strode ; 
As files on files advanced in serried might, 
How flashed their arms' intolerable light; 
Casques, shields and spears, and banners floating gay* 
And mail-clad steeds, and chariots' proud array, 
Bright glancing as the fires which heaven adora, 
When fair Aurora brings the boreal morn ! 
Thus monstrous forms o'er heaven's nocturnal arch, 
Seen by the sage, in pomp celestial march; 
See Aries there his glittering brow unfold, 
And raging Taurus toss his horns of gold; 
With bended bow the sullen Archer lowers, 
And there Aquarius comes with all his showersj 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 13 

Lions and Centaurs, Gorgons, Hydras rise, 
And Gods and Heroes blaze along the skies* 

Then mighty deeds that giant race had wrought, 
And bold beyond the muse's boldest thought; 
Had dared, perchance, with unresisted sway, 
To force to Scandia's shores their onward way; 
Or like their earth-born sires, infuriate driven, 
Had matched their arms against the might of heaven : 
But deep dismay spread Albin's shores around, 
When crouding frequent to each sacred mound 
Of rocks, or crags that ne'er felt chisel's stroke, 
By hill or glen, or wood of hallowed oak ; 
Bards, Druids, Warriors, as their altars blaze, 
For aid, for vengeance loud petitions raise; 
Three days thrice told, on Odin loud they call, 
Each day sees thrice three human victims fail, 

" Rise mighty Odin, rise in power divine, 
And sink to Hela's gulf our foes and thine, 
These sons of Frost, whom mad ambition goads 
To brave thy power, and scale thy blest abodes." 



14 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Throned on dark clouds, dread Odin heard from 
far, 
In icy realms beneath the northern star, 
Where in Valhalla's courts his warlike train 
Quaff the brown draught from skulls of heroes slain : 
Deep-moved he rose, and soon with loud alarms 
Heaven's pavements rang, as Odin rushed to arms. 
Swift down the bow of many a fulgent dye, 
Bridge of the Gods, th' immortal footsteps hie ; 
Hail, sleet and darkness o'er his bosom spread, 
The rush of waters roared around his head, 
While wrapt in light'ning and devouring storm, 
He swept the winds, a dim terrific form; 
Aloft in wrath his brandished arm he raised, 
Bright in his hand the hissing thunder blazed, 
While on the centre of the arch he stood, 
And sent his potent mandate o'er the flood. 

"Arise," he cried, f ye ministers of ire, 
Ye hurricanes, ye floods, and red-winged fire; 
Arise, go forth in congregated might, 
And whelm these impious toils in lasting night." 



THE GIANTS CAUSEWAY. 15 

Then livid fires the vault of heaven o'ercast, 
High rose the floods, and furious howled the blast ; 
Then Lochlin's Gods in might resistless came; 
Thor's mace impetuous smote the trembling frame; 
The sister fates,, twelve dark tremendous shades, 
Sang their dire spells, and waved their shining blades, 
While Loke and Hela, from their chains unbound, 
Shook to its rooted base the yawning ground : 
Then tossed each isle, and cliff, and rugged steep, 
Wild rolled the mountains like a stormy deep, 
And crashing, roaring, thundering loud to heaven, 
Down rushed the arch, in shattered fragments riven, 
With horrid din, as if th* exploding ball, 
And heaven's rent pillars mingled in their fall. 

Deep in the dreary caves of ocean lie 
The ponderous ruins far from mortal eye : 
Yet each abutment of the structure stands 
A proud memorial of the giant bands, 
Through earth's extended realms renowned afar, 
As great in peace, and terrible in war. 
And then, if earth to heaven in arms opposed, 
Might aught avail, in conflict had they closed 



16 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

With Lochlin's gods, and Odin, taught to feel, 
Had rued the dint of Fion's better steel. 
But by enchanted spells unnerv'd they stood, 
Fixed to the beach, till horror chilled their blood, 
And total change pervading nerve and bone, 
Hard grew their limbs, and all were turned to stone. 
Now oft their shadowy spectres, flitting light, 
Croud to their favourite mole at noon of night, 
In fancy's eye, the curious toil pursue, 
And all the tasks that pleased in life renew. 
One, huge of stature, dark beneath the gloom, 
Grasps in his brawny hand the mimic loom ; 
One rides the lion rock ; in cadence low, 
One bids the organ's beauteous structure blow ; 
While far aloof on yon lone column's height, 
Their Lord and Hero glories in the sight. 

Thus grey Tradition tells the wondrous tale, 
And Fancy's visions thus for truth prevail. 

What forms august of kings and heroes bold 
Bear my rapt spirit to the times of old ? 
Genius of Ossian ! say what rocky dell 
Hears the wild inspiration of thy shell ? 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 17 

What mighty spirits of thy sires renowned, 
Bow from their airy halls to hear the sound ? 

Ah me ! no more these whispering rocks among 
Floats the sweet voice of minstrelsy and song ; 
Around the blazing oak, no Finnian train 
Hear their loved Ossian's soul-subduing strain ; 
Xo more they mingle in the war's alarms, 
Nor hail the glorious din of death in arms : 
The wild heath blossoms o'er their mountain bed, 
Dark in the house of breathless slumber spread ; 
A high-heaped cairn of grey unsculptured stones, 
Raised to the storm, protects the heroes' bones; 
There dumb oblivion spreads her Stygian wings, 
And the shrill blast their sullen requiem sings. 

But still the heaven-rapt bard, whose glowing mind 
Not Death can hold, nor Hell's strong limits bind, 
Around these capes beholds their spirits roam, 
Sees their light corraghs ride the northern foam : 
Shields, spears, and crested helms around him start, 
And sounds celestial vibrate to his heart. 



18 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY, 

Oft he recals those mournful days of yore. 
When blazed the baleful war-torch round the shore, 
As through the rampired cliffs the battle-horn 
Pealed its shrill echoes on the ear of morn ; 
When rival clans, with fell ambition strove, 
Inspired by glory, dire revenge, or love. 
And now he cons how Deirdre's fatal charms 
Roused all the valour of the isle to arms : 
How great Tirowen on the Saxon horde 
Proved the keen temper of Ultonia's sword ; 
Or Sourlebuoy, from lonely glen or hill, 
Poured through the martial pipe his pibrock shrill: 
'Till Aura, tinged with many a crimson spring, 
Heard Erin's steel on Albin's target ring, 
And saw the wily Gael, turned from flight, 
Roll on his scattered foes the storm of fight. 
— Now— to the heughs of black polluted shade* 
He sees the fierce Monro, with gory blade 
Sweep like a driving flame before the wind, 

And headlong hurl the poor defenceless hind. * 

Anon he hears, round Derry's castled walls, 
Dire Famine howling as the warrior falls, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 19 

Sees the pale mother with despairing eye, 
Clasp to her milkless breast her babe and die. 
Hark ! the boom crashes — heaven impels the sail ; 
Thou man of men, hail patriot Walker, hail ! 

Muse of historic lore, to fame unfold 

The glowing page of Erin's days of gold 

What time her hordes the ever-teeming north 
Sent, like the storms of desolation forth ; 
Loud shrieked the genius of expiring Rome, 
And Learning, Arts and Science wept their doom, 
'Till exiled far from Latiura's prostrate fanes, 
They poured their radiance on Ierne's plains ; 
Then heard these rocks Sicilian muses sing, 
The reed's soft warblings, and the epic string; 
Then Peace, in wilds like these, her temple raised, 
Here the pure altars of Religion blazed; 
Joy rang the harp, and heaven's according smile 
Approved the lay, and blessed the holy isle. 

O age of glory ! age for ever fled ! 
Shades of my fathers ! spirits of the dead ! 



20 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Is Erin's fame deep buried in your urn, 
Cold in the grasp of death no more to burn. 
Oh ! has the harp's last chord to sorrow strung, 
The funeral dirge of Erin's glory rung ? 
Then burst indignant — scorning more to raise 
A cold and lifeless recreant nation's praise ! 

Mute, mute the harp ! for ever lost the art 
Which roused to rapture each Milesian heart; 
Cold, cold the hands whose thrilling touch sublime 
Caught the rapt ear, and stayed the flight of time ! 
With blasting dews the charmer lies o'erspread, 
Burst every chord-— her soul for ever fled ! 

Yet, with regret, let memory fond retrace 
The long lost honours of the tuneful race, 
When all their souls with holy ardour fired, 
In Erin's youth the patriot flame inspired, 
And rolled the rapid dithyrambic strain, 
To urge them furious on the robber Dane ; 
When fell Turgesius, on th' ensanguined coast, 
Raised the proud banners of his pirate host; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 21 

Or Cnutus, royal plunderer, seized with fear, 
Felt on Clontarf the might of Erin's spear. 
Wild as they sung, pale Scandia loud deplored 
Her raven, smote beneath the Finnian sword. 
But when they changed their varying chords, they 

bound 
Each raging passion in the chains of sound; 
Love, pity, rapture, all the world of soul, 
Hung on their strings, and owned their bland controul. 

Oft on these shores they bade the youth advance, 
With measured footstep, to the martial dance, 
Or with a solemn, slow, majestic tread, 
Round the tall tower the holy circuit led ; 
Or when the mountain tops, in splendour bright, 
Roused all their fires to hail the god of light, 
In loftier tones the hallowed numbers flowed, 
And raised to heaven the spirit-breathing ode, 
Then first in glory, as in worth they moved, 
By nations honoured, and by monarchs loved. 

When Albion's vanes first waved on Erin's strand, 
And Saxon craft had rent the bleeding land, 



I THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

While rival chiefs their country's life assailed, 
And Discord triumphed where the sword had failed, 
Swift fell Oppression's vengeful bolts among 
The sacred sons of liberty and song. 
Oh power accursed ! oh ill-requited race ! 
Pride of the land, her glory and disgrace ! 
For this did Erin's love your harps inspire, 
For this heaven touch your souls with living fire ? 
Crushed, banished, bleeding, in what lonely glade, 
Rose like the wounded bird's in deepest shade, 
Your dirge of death, — while Freedom sat and sighed. 
O'er the fall'n wreath of Erin's withered pride ? 
By rocks like these that heard the eagle's scream, 
Or wolf, loud howling by the moon's pale beam, 
Or on the battle field, o'er heaps of dead, 
Where Erin's sons by mutual wounds had bled, 
The blood-stained harp bade all its sorrows flow, 
So wildly sweet, with such prevailing woe, 
That yet its echoes, faintly though they roll 
Down time's long current, rouse and thrill the soul. 
Oft too it raised its loud commanding strains, 
Bold as the spirit in the patriot's veins, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 23 

For Erin's warriors, in collected might, 

To grasp the spear of Liberty and Right, 

And like their sires, in terrible array, 

Again renew Clontarf's illustrious day. — 

— Now mute its voice — Oblivion whelms their name, 

And not a bard survives to mourn his country's shame. 

Here too his sacred lore the Druid taught, 
Here breathed the fires of* elevated thought, 
Th* undaunted spirit of the martial strife, 
The proud, heroic, generous scorn of life ; 
Bold in the faith that death dissolves the ties 
Which hold the souPs pure essence from the skies. 
Raised on a slope once crowned with waving wood, 
Unsheltered now, and bare, his altar stood : 
Three pointed crags the ponderous load sustain, 
Unhewn, sonorous, of basaltic grain, 
Work of gigantic hands ; and spread around 
A stony circle marks the mystic ground. 

Beneath imbowering rocks I see the sage, 
His soul high panting with prophetic rage, 



24 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Long trails of light his glistening vestments flow, 
Like lucid foam descends his beard of snow, 
O'er his broad temples bound with shady green, 
Bright shine the crescent's horns of silvery sheen, 
And in his hand the misletoe behold, 
Lopt from its parent oak with blade of gold. 
What big emotion heaves his panting heart, 
Swift from his tongue what thrilling accents start ! 
Be hushed ye winds ; roll calm thou murmuring deep; 
Soft in your caves ye gentle echoes sleep ! 
See, his rapt soul feels inspiration's glow, 
And a God dictates as the numbers flow. 

" Rise, rise ye ages from the mists of night, 
" Rend time's dark veil, and burst upon my sight ! 
«* Round Sleimis see what beams of glory play, 
" A sainted stranger pours the flood of day ! 
" A cross he bears whose high and potent spell 
" Has burst the adamantine gates of hell ; 
" And in his hand the sacred charter brings 
" Of life immortal from the king of kings. 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 25 

" Where'er he treads what new-born joys abound, 
" Serpents and dragons flee the hostile ground, 

• The monsters of the wild his voice obey, 

" And Pride and Lust more furious far than they ; 
w Peace rains her holy influence from above, 
" And Virtue triumphs with redeeming Love ! 

" Rise, rise ye ages from the mists of night, 
ec Rend time's dark veil, and burst upon my sight ! 
" Before the breeze rapacious Lochlin sails — 
** White bleach her bones in Erin's rescued vales— 
* — Ah ! hated vision ! trembling, and alone, 
u A foul adulterer bows at England's throne ; 
<e The Norman vulture o'er th' empurpled flood. 
" Steers her fell flight to gorge on Erin's blood : 
u Mourn, Innisfail ! her banner Discord waves, 

* And chants her war-song o'er thy childrens' graves ', 
u The sanguine mists of carnage taint the air, 

" Thy grass-grown courts are now the wild deer's lair; 

" Yet still unbroken, still inspiring dread, 

° Thy maddening spear in Saxon blood grows reel. 



J6 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

" Rise, happier ages, from the mists, of night, 
,( Rend time's dark veil, and burst upon my sight ! 
u Boyne foams with blood — a coward monarch flies, 
"War sheathes his gory blade — Rebellion dies! 
"No more fell Faction hurls her flaming brand, 
u But smiling Concord waves her'clive wand : 
*' From east to west -,3e equal rights prevail, 
" And Erin's ,~>cas are new Britannia's pale. 
" One king, one sceptre rule? the sister isles,, 
" In Union's flowery wreaths blithe Erin smiles^ 
" By mutual love, for mutual strength combined, 
" See, round the rose the verdant shamrock twined f 
" Joy crouds the street, and carols with the swain, 
° Truth, Justice Mercy here for ever reign. 

Ceased is the voice — but still the sound I hear 
In soft melodious murmurs meet my ear* 
And still the rocks repeat the dulcet strain, 
11 Truth, Justice, Mercy, here for ever reign." 

Here good Columba showed in Christian skies, 
The lucid dav-star of Salvation rise : 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 27 

Bright beamed its glcry, and with power divine, 
Pierced through the darkness of the pagan shrine ; 
The lone bleak Hebrids caught its cheering rays, 
Thence far Iona's altars drew their bla?e, 
And soon the barren crag, and savage wild 
With fruits and flowers of growth immortal smiled. 

Where Margy's walls, unroofed and mouldering 
stand, 
IVlid the long rye-grass rustling o'er the sand, 
Where many a heaving sod, and rustic stone, 
Death, dread destroyer, mark the place thy own, 
What sacred orisons with morn arose, 
What heaven-taught vespers blest the evening's close ! 
Lost to the world, its follies all forgot, 
There chose the monk his calm contented lot, 
Told o'er his beads, his useless vigils kept, 
Or o'er the pages of the fathers slept. 
There too, perhaps, some Eloisa strove, 
Poor cloistered victim of despair and love, 
With many an idle wish, and heartless prayer. 
To lift her thoughts to heaven, and fix them there. 



28 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Now all is hushed, and silent as the grave, 

Save when the tempests through the lone aisles rave, 

Solemn and sad — or when the time-struck wall 

Wakes the dull echoes by its sounding fall, 

Charming the ear of Ruin, as he smiles 

O'er slimy vaults, and monumental piles. 



Thou too Dunluce, proud throne of feudal state, 
Hast bowed beneath the withering arm of fate ; 
For time has been, when girt with martial powers 
High waved thy banners o'er thy sea-girt towers; 
When deep and awful rose the battle's roar, 
And War's artillery shook thy trembling shore. 
— Then rude Magnificence adorned thy board, 
And Valour steeled thy lord's victorious sword ; 
Then loud was heard the voice of festive glee, 
With dance, and song, and heaven-taught minstrelsy. 
Wide to the storm now stand thy echoing halls, 
Time saps the base of thy basaltic walls ; 
In ruin lies thy bridge's narrow pass, 
Sunk in the fosse, and clothed with waving grass; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 



29 



The sea-pink blooms upon thy turrets* height, 
There the lone bird of ocean sits by night ; 
While far beneath, thy wave-washed cavern moans, 
As the sad spirit of the whirlwind groans, 
And fell Banshees, across the lonely heath, 
Shriek to the blast, and pour the song of death. 



Sad are thy changes, Time — and Mem'ry's tears 
Fall as she pauses on the wrecks of years, 
While many a tint from Fancy's pallet thrown, 
Gives to the past a beauty not its own, 
And bids the Muse in savage life behold 
Heroic virtues, and an age of gold. 
Thus the rough wildness of the mountain bare* 
By distance mellowed in the clear blue air, 
Presents creative thought with many a scene 
Of woods and cots, fair glen, and rural green. 
At Truth's quick glance the vain delusions fly, 
And Reason checks the momentary sigh, 
While Hope extatic, points to happier skies, 
And bids new scenes of bliss and glory rise. 



30 THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 

Lo ! fair Improvement, on the wheels of time, 
Rejoicing, moves o'er Dalriada's clime, 
Like tower-crowned Ceres, when the vales of Ide 
Saw the first harvests clothe their cultured side ; 
Laughed the green hills, and soothed by influence bland 
The harnessed lions own'd her guiding hand. 
See patient Industry, and sun-burnt Toil, 
O'er the rough flint induce the verdant soil ; 
While bleak December hears the mower blithe, 
In new-born meadows whet the shining scythe. 
Where barbarous clans the savage war-howl raised, 
Now hear the God of love celestial praised: 
Those iron towers that lodged th' as?assin horde, 
Strong dens of Rapine, Terror, and the sword, 
Sink ne'er to rise — the shag-haired kern no more 
Bathes, as he howls, his reeking skeyn in gore ; 
But Peace sits smiling on the mountain heath, 
And Plenty revels on the plains beneath, 
Where Spring's first flowers their purple hues unfold, 
Or harvests rustle in autumnal gold. 
How Nature wantons in our beauteous vales, 
Clothes the green sward, and scents the fragrant gales; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 31 

With fruits the groves, with pearls the waters stores, 

The rocks with diamonds, and the hills with ores ; 

While laughing Naiads from their urns distil 

Their dews mellifluous, and the balmy rill. 

Flow, Lagan flow — though close thy banks of green, 

Though in the picture of the world unseen, 

Yet dearer to my soul thy waters run, 

Than all the rills that glide beneath the sun; 

For first by thee my bosom learned to prove 

The joys of friendship, and the bliss of love; 

No change of time, or place, shall e'er dispart 

Those ties which Nature twines around my heart; 

Each dear association, grown more strong, 

As years roll on, shall flourish in my song. 

Flow on fair stream — thy gathering waves expand., 

And greet with joy the Athens of the land ; 

Through groves of masts thick crowding o'er thy tide, 

A new Ilissus, roll in classic pride : 

Thy Percy hail, with age and honour crowned, 

Loved of the muse, and by the muse renowned : 

For other Joys see Taste her chaplets twine ; 

Hear other Bruces speak at Wisdom's shrine : 



32 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Along thy banks, with early blooms o'erspread, 
By other Temt-letons see Flora led : 
May Dante's soul in other Boyds revive, 
And every shoot of truth and knowledge thrive ! 
Thy laurelled brows exulting Science raise, 
Now heaven recals old Erin's golden days ; 
Ages of glory, heroes, saints return, 
Bright o'er the land, ye stars of Genius burn t 
Awake ye Bards, your ancient rights regain, 
New string your harps, and raise a bolder strain ; 
From shore to shore the light of song diffuse, 
And crown, O Fame, the virtue-breathing muse* 

END OF BOOK FIRST* 



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TH£ 



GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 








[ J ,l, E AS KI. 



ARGUMENT. 

Praise of Erin.,. Address to a friend... Excursion round the 
coast of Antrim. ..View of the cliffs from the sea. ..Fata 
Morgana at the Bush-foot strand... Moral reflections... 
Dunkerry cave... Nature, the parent of the fine arts. ..Port 
na Spania....Pleaskin..., Kelp-burners... .Salmon-fishery.... 
Different instincts of the eel and salmon... Marine occu- 
pations of the inhabitants of the coast.. .Cruelty of those 
who plunder shipwrecked vessels reprobated... A shoal 
of herrings... .of Porpoues.... Fecundity of the waters... 
Rise and progress of navigation... Descent to the bottom 
of the deep. ..Bengore...Benmore.. .The eagle.. .Mode of 
robbing sea-fowls' nests... Episode of Blanaid. 



THE 

GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

BOOK SECOND, 

X 1 AIR land of zephyrs, while life's currents flow, 
Warm in my heart the love of thee shall glow ; 
Thy winding vales, thy lakes of crystal sheen. 
Thy mountains covered with perennial green, 
Thy woods, thy cataracts, and billowy sea, 
Yes, even thy weeping sky has joys for me. 
For ever blooming be thy daughters' charms, 
And ever bright their wit's resistless arms; 
Brave be thy sons, in manly beauty strong, 
And proud their feeling of oppression's wrong ; 



56 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Though yet untaught by prudence to controul 
The first rash impulse of the free-born soul, 
Hail to the spirit that informs their heart, 
Warm, generous, noble, unenslaved by art ; 
The record fair of nature's pristine plan, 
Retaining yet the genuine stamp of man ! 

My Armstrong, come, the muse's early friend, 
And round our northern shores her flight attend; 
If e'er in life's fair morn we wooed the Nine, 
Or sought the treasures of the classic mine, 
Led by the star of Bruce, whose radiance bright, 
Ne'er sheds a sparing, nor a dubious light; 
Come, climb with me the cliff-crowned hill of caves, 
Rise o'er the world, its passions, and its slaves; 
Let thy high thoughts with rapt Devotion soar, 
And Nature's God, on Nature's shrine adore. 
Thence beach-ward by the walls of Fergus rove, 
By Oldfleet tower, and Inver's hallowed grove ; 
Or where high Salagh's ridge o'erlooks the vale, 
Whose numerous bean-fields scent the fragrant gale; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 37 

Sweet scenes, where oft in life's fair morn I strayed, 
Blest be your swains, and ever green your shade ! 
Or where Glenarm extends its pebbly shores, 
White as the foamy surge that round them roars ; 
Or Garron's bastion cliffs the waves repel, 
Or fair Glenariff winds her wizard dell ; 
Or Torr's black rocks Titanian limbs o'erspread, 
Or cloudy Benmore lifts his giant head ; 
Or where Kenban his chalky brow uprears, 
With turrets crowned, the pride of other years ; 
Or that dread bridge, by hempen fetters bound 
From steep to steep at Reda's gulf profound, 
Light as the work of sylphs, above the seas 
Aerial hangs, and shivers in the breeze. 

» But if it more delight, come stretch the sail, 
And bid the cliffs and rocks from ocean hail ; 
See from beneath the various picture move, 
And smile at Terror as he frowns above. 

Smooth glides the skif£ and up the rustling sand 
Rolls the light surge, by Bosca's magic strand, 



38 THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 

Where gay Morgana and her fairy train 
Sport with the senses of the wondering swain; 
Raised by her power, he sees a warlike line 
Of plumy crests, and burnished muskets shine ; 
Anon they flit, and lawns and woods arise, 
Chariots and steeds, and towers that reach the skies ; 
Now fades the scene, and bounding in the breeze, 
Embattled navies sweep the azure seas ; 
Sail crouds on sail, the boiling wake grows hoar, 
And whitening surges climb each sculptured prore. — 
— Gone is the pageant ! — vanished from the view, 
Like the thin vapour, or the morning dew. 

Thus as adown the stream of life we sail, 
What gay delusions oft o'er sense prevail ! 
Romantic Fancy paints each coming scene, 
And clothes the desert in unreal green ; 
Bids camps and fleets the passing bark invite* 
Elysian groves, and mansions of delight, 
Where Power and Pleasure spread their potent wiles, 
And Love and Fame with meretricious smiles ; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 39 

Vain rainbow forms, enchanting to the view, 
Which mock the grasp, and flee as we pursue. 

Where yon dark shadowy rocks embower the wave, 
Scooped in their mural height Dunkerry's cave, 
As Fion's grot sublime, its arms extends, 
And o'er the floods its dome high-arching bends: 
A crimson zone its emerald walls surrounds, 
Far, far within the hollow surge resounds ; 
Borne through the cleft's contracting sides we hear 
Its echoes roll, where skiff ne'er dared to steer. 

Now round the mole, from Giants named of yore, 
Thy altar Nature, helm th* obedient prore ; 
How black, how firm, its adamantine sides 
Rise o'er the azure of the heaving tides! 
How proud th* indented bound of ocean lowers ! 
What rocky theatres, and spire?, and towers ! 
First bold creation of the plastic hand, 
That rolled the billows round the rock-ribbed land ! 
Nature's primeval forms, whence mimic Art 
Saw the first image of her fabrics start, 



40 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Th* idea fair of wonders deemed her own, 
The breathing canvas, and the quickened stone. 
But vain her powers with Nature's pride to vie, 
As the gilt dome to match the starry sky ; 
High be her boast of Tiber's proud arcades, 
Her ducts, pantheons, fanes, and colonnades: 
See, in these temples of the northern blast, 
Their beauty, grandeur, strength and skill surpast. 

Ye heights of Spania hail ! — for ever stand 
The strong terrific bulwark of the land ; 
And should th' invader, yet untaught, explore 
Thy seas inviolate and free — once more 
Let Erin's genius on thy stormy brow, 
Hear the rocks crashing through the hostile prow> 

What muse, O Pleaskin, in accordant lays, 
To future times shall consecrate thy praise, 
Thou noblest temple ever Nature's power 
Built for her homage pure ? — In fancy's hour 
Embodying fair the image of her mind, 
She bade thy courts in circling beauty wind ; 



THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 41 

Row above row, with grandeur joined to grace, 

Raised thy grey columns o'er their vermeil base; 

A solemn majesty around thee spread, 

And with cerulean aether crowned thy head. 

Most beauteous steep that shades the ocean tide, 

The Muse's wonder and Ierne's pride, 

Thou fair Palmyra of this rocky waste — 

Thy fane in Greece or Rome had Nature placed, 

How many an awe-struck and adoring croud 

Had o'er thy consecrated altars bowed ; 

Bade their vows mount on incensed wings above, 

And hailed thee temple of Almighty Jove. 

What clouds of smoke in azure curls aspire 
From many an altar's dark and smouldering fire ? 
What shadowy forms dim gleam upon the sight, 
Now hid in fume — now clear with sudden light; 
Do Greece's priests revive in Erin's sky, 
Or dread wierd sisters rites unholy try ? 
Ah no ! a race inured to toil severe, 
Of manners simple, and of heart sincere, 

G 



42 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Sons of the rock and nurselings of the surge, 
Around the kiln their daily labours urge ; 
O'er the dried weed the smoky volume coils, 
And deep beneath the precious kali boils. 

High on yon cliff the fisher takes his stand, 
The rock's loose fragments arm his brawny hand, 
Swift as he marks the glistening salmon glide, 
He hurls a rattling stone^shower in the tide. 
The patient boatman rocking on the brine, 
Elate with hope, beholds the well-known sign : 
Swift winds the capturing net, and now in vain, 
The fear-struck captive beats the flaxen chain ; 
Vain is his strength, and vain his dotted mail, 
His rapid fin, quick eye, and springy tail : 
He sports in Bosca's sable streams no more, 
Nor braves majestic Banna's cataract roar; 
By hands unpitying, from his native flood 
Dragged o'er the pointed crags, defiled with blood, 
His scales all ruffled, and his vigour fled, 
He gasps — he pants — he lies deformed — and dead. 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 43 

What different instinct bids the silvery eel 
In countless train up Banna's torrents wheel, 
While salmon shoals the downward streams forsake, 
And to the stranger brood resign the lake ; 
In whose clear waves the prickly holly thrown, 
Its nature loses, and transmutes to stone ? 
Unfold it thou, O Templeton, whose view 
Has roved creation's peopled regions through; 
Thou who can'st speak of all the flowers of spring, 
Of fish of every fin, and bird of every wing : 
Tell, for thou knows't, how Nature has assigned 
Their times and seasons to each tribe and kind, 
And how her laws direct, propel, controul, 
So wondrous wise, th' instinctive powers of soul. 

In shallow streamlets, with th* insidious fly, 
Their tiny art let patient anglers try : 
Far other sport the hardy natives boast, 
Who sweep with long-drawn net this iron coast, 
Or o'er the whirling surge the feather spread. 
To tempt the Glashan from his oozy bed. 



44 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

'Tis theirs with storms to urge the bold turmoil, 
Where adverse tides in whelming eddies boil ; 
To hear sad shriekings in the midnight air, 
To see the ghastly death-fires of despair 
Flash o'er the wreck, and grisly spectres croud 
Where floats the wan corse in a foamy shroud ; 
While boding mermaids rising on the swell, 
Wring their wet locks, and chant their funeral spell. 

Down to the wreck-strewn beach, when storms arise, 
The ruffian plunderer, led by Rapine hies ; 
Greedy of spoil, the savage joys to mark 
The wild waves rushing o'er the shattered bark ; 
He comes for deeds of dreadful name prepared, 
To slay the wanderer whom the storm has spared : 
Accurs'd of heaven ! the land's reproach and shame, 
May Disappointment ever blast your aim, 
And Want and Famine howling at your board, 
Avenge the slighted law's too tardy sword ! 
Ke'er, Dalriada, may the fiend of gain 
Possess thy genius, and thy shores profane, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 45 

But, prompt at Mercy's call, thy hand extend 

To save the helpless, and the wronged defend. 

i 

In airy wheels what fowls unnumbered fly, 
Dashing the seas, or screaming through the sky ? 
The Herring's march they follow from the pole ; 
Millions on millions moves th' enormous shoal ; 
In gentle undulations as they rise 
On the smooth rippling waves, a thousand dyes 
Shot from their scales with mingling lustre play, 
A field of gems wide-blazing to the day ! 
Voracious foes their feeble ranks assail, 
The Shark, the Porpoise, and devouring Whale ; 
The keen-eyed Osprey marks the prey from far, 
And there th' impetuous Gannet brings the war; 
Poised on smooth pinion from his tow'ry height, 
With glance more rapid than a shaft of light, 
He marks his quarry in the crystal flood, 
And plumb-down darting, in the victim's blood 
Drives his keen beak. — With rapture-beaming eye 
The well-known sign the ready fishers spy, 



46 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Th* unsparing nets around the prey expand, 
And heap with treasure all the yellow sand. 

See, as they gambol o'er the hoary brine, 
What porpoise shoals with quick reflections shine ; 
As by the skiff they urge their swift career, 
The timid landsman starts with sudden fear ; 
New to the waves he dreads each novel form, 
Shrinks from the spray, and deems the breeze a storm; 
But vain his fears — away the monsters sweep, 
Like Neptune's coursers plunging through the deep. 

Oft to the fisher aid unhoped they bring, 
As on the salmon's passing ranks they spring ; 
The shoal quick darting from their jaws with dread, 
Plunge in the nets, and meet a fate they fled. 
Thus as the greyhound rakes her flix behind, 
The startled hare bounds rapid as the wind^ 
Till to the rustic's secret snare she hies, 
And in the fatal noose unpitied dies. 
Thus mid the blue Atlantic waves afar. 
The winged fish avoids th* unequal war ; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 47 

When close behind the hungry dolphin darts, 
Swift from his gaping jaws away she starts, 
And from her native wave by terror driven, 
Spreads her moist pinions to the breeze of heaven ; 
Now foes of fleeter wing her flight espy; 
The braying Albatross with glutton eye, 
And rapid Frigate, in their airy way, 
Wheel sw 7 ift around, and seize the flying prey : 
Or if by chance she shun the feathered foe, 
The wary Dolphin that pursued below, 
With jaws expanding wide beneath the wave, 
Receives the victim in a living grave. 

Prolific Ocean ; how thy bounteous flood 
From all its sources sends the scaly brood ! 
For man, dread tyrant, glide their marshalled powers, 
From all thy sands, and rocks, and coral bow T ers ; 
No scale -fenced ribs against his art avail, 
Nor strength, nor bulk, nor shelly plates of mail ; 
Their swiftest march more rapid he pursues, 
Ensnares by cunning, or by force subdues. 



48 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

As round the isles thy moon-struck empire rolls, 
Joins east and west, and links the adverse poles, 
Launched on thy waves with daring soul sublime, 
Lo ! man becomes the guest of every clime. 

'Tis thine, divine Philosophy, to guide 
The wandering sailor o'er the pathless tide : 
Stayed by the waters, far around him hurled, 
Man deemed his shores the limit of the world ; 
Till taught by thee the rugged pine to hew, 
Stitch the smooth bark, and build the light canoe. 
On streams, and lakes, and narrow friths grown brave, 
He dared at length to meet the ocean wave ; 
Traced by thy aid the wonders of the skies, 
And marked the constellations set and rise ; 
Then, towered the mast o'er triple banks of oars, 
And War sat frowning on the brazen prores. 
Yet from his ken lay half the world unknown, 
'Till thou the needle's mystic power hadst shown ; 
Then first Columbus, of intrepid mind, 
Gave all his canvas to the eastern wind, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 49 

And held the ruling helm through toil and pain, 

The midnight watch, the perils of the main, 

And the fierce factions of a dastard crew, 

'Till new-found worlds burst glorious on his view. 

Then bold De Gama braved the phantom forms, 

That scowled portentous at the cape of storms, 

And o'er the watry waste in triumph borne, 

Explored his passage to the realms of morn- 

See now Britannia's red-cross flag unfurled 

On every shore around the convex world; 

Where blazing suns rive every pitchy seam, 

Or ice-bound ropes in arctic moon-light gleam. 

Firm and undaunted, lo ! the British tar 

Hides on the floods, and braves each hostile star; 

He bares his bosom to the arrowy sleet, 

And hears the thunder bursting at his feet ; 

With Nelson's genius breathes Britannia's ire, 

And sinks her foes, or wraps in storms of fire ; 

Or led by Cooke's adventurous zeal imparts 

To barbarous hordes, peace, science, and the arts ; 

The heaven- ward paths of knowledge bids them scan, 

And moulds the rugged savage into man. 

H 



50 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Lead, lead, my spirit, far beneath the waves, 
Through limestone vallies, and basaltic caves; 
O like Cyrene's offspring let me go 
To view the wonders of the world below ; 
What roots of rock thick-woven, and entwined, 
Those giant steeps to earth's fixed centre bind ; 
What sea-born forests clothe their vallied sides, 
What Whirling pools absorb th' engulfing tides; 
How Maelstrom rages on Norwegian shores, 
Or Corry-vreckan's frightful vortex roara. 

Amazing world ! how vain the thoughts of man, 
Thy depths, thy terrors, and thy wealth to scan ! 
Down, down unfathomably deep are laid, 
Where plummet never dropped, where thought ne'er 

strayed, 
Earth's vast foundatioris-^wrecks of worlds unknown, 
By central shocks dismembered and o'erthrown. 
What fissures, gulfs, and precipices dread, 
And dismal vales with ivory bones o'erspread ! 
Vast cemet'ries, where Horror holds his court, 
Prowls the fell shark, and monstrous krakens sport. 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 51 

What mines of gold, and gems of emerald ray ! 
What floors of pearl the coral grots inlay ! 
Here, still as death, the oak-ribbed vessel lies. 
Wedged in the grasping rocks no more to rise ; 
Sent hissing down, as through the sulphurous air 
Rang the mixed shouts of triumph and despair : 
Now sluggish limpets on the decks repose; 
Through the rent ports*the oozy tangle grows, 
And climbs the poop, where Glory's hands unfurled 
The red-cross flag that awed the wat'ry world. 
The victor here, and vanquished, side by side, 
Sleep ghastly pale, sad wrecks of human pride; 
Their nerveless hands yet grasp the fatal steel, 
And yet the warrior's ire they seem to feel. 
Unhallowed ire ! oh guilt ! oh rage unblest ! 
Here, here, Ambition, come, and plume thy crest; 
Here see thy trophies, relics of the brave 
Untimely slain, and whelmed beneath the wave. 
See children, fathers, husbands long deplored, 
Unshrouded, gashed, and mangled by the sword ; 
Here build the proud memorial of thy fame, 
And down to hell thy triumphs loud proclaim. 



52, THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

All-righteous heaven ! how long shall murderous War 
O'er slaughtered hosts impel his ruthless car; 
And cursed Ambition, drunk with folly, plan 
The guilt, the crimes, and miseries of man ! 

Far from these scenes where Death and Horror lie, 
Back to thy native rocks, my spirit, hie; 
Place me, ye Muses, where Bengore uprears 
His broad, firm brow to meet the storms of years ; 
Where hangs the steady wild-goat undismayed, 
O'er beetling cliffs where human foot ne'er strayed; 
Where, met in torrents of electric fire, 
The midnight spirits of the winds conspire. 
The wary seamen mark the sign with fear, 
And reef their canvas as aloof they steer; 
While bright, and brighter yet, the beaconed steep 
Glows with collecting fires, vast diamond of the deep. 

Then let me rove where Benmore's airy height 
Aspires still nearer to the realms of light: 
Chained to such rock, in drear Caucasian clime, 
Thy son, Japetus, gloried in his crime, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 53 

When on his brow fierce smote the angry levin, 

And round him roared th* artillery of heaven. 

Gigantic steep, what massy pillars form 

Thy breezy halls, thy palace of the storm ; 

Waste, savage, wild, where not a blade of green 

With cheerful tint adorns the solemn scene. 

In vain the bee explores thy barren soil, 

There blooms no flower to pay the wanderer's toil; 

But on thy fissured side, the Eagle proud 

His eyry builds, anchiestles in the cloud. 

Those shattered rocks in waste terrific hurled 

Around thy base, rent columns of the world ; 

Thy splintery brow, deep-trenched through many an 

age, 
Beneath the thunder's dint, and whirlwind's rage, 
Stupendous wrecks, pre-eminently grand, 
Declare that power whose high Almighly hand 
Heaved thee from ocean. — Awe-struck as I gaze, 
My soul is lost in mute adoring praise. 
Since earth arose, majestic hast thou stood 
Enthroned in tranquil grandeur o'er the flood ; 



54 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

While states and empires grown to boundless sway, 

Have withered, drooped, and perished from the day. 

Thou too shalt fall, though seeming to defy 

Th' eternal warfare of the sea and sky ; 

Around thy base shall Dissolution twine, 

And time's sure vengeance to thy center mine ; 

The firm foundations of thy piers abrade, 

And level with the surge thy proud facade. 

Roused from his eyry see the Eagle rise ; 
With sounding pinion now he mounts the skies ; 
Bright, round his beak, electric glories play, 
His eye-ball braves the sun's refulgent ray; 
Far o'er the seas with level wing he skims, 
Sports in the clouds, or through deep azure swims, 
"Till near Cantire he wheel his rapid course, 
Or mid th' Ebudae, with the lightning's force, 
Darts sudden down to pounce the trembling hare, 
Or from the shepherd rend his fleecy care.... 
—In vain the rustic's shouts his flight pursue, 
He mounts, he lessens in the liquid blue.- — 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 55 

On some high peak he tears the quivering spoil; 

Or if subdued by hunger's rage, or toil, 

On some low quarry sent by chance he feed,, 

The elf-shot heifer, or the carrion steed, 

Gorged, though unsated, when his wings are spread 

To mount the skies» their power to mount is fled. 

ill-fated emblem of the sensual soul ! 

No more the clouds beneath his feet shall roll, 

Nor earth diminish from his piercing sight, 

As to the fount of day he wings his flight. 

He sees with dread dismay th* approaching swain, 

And tries again to rise, but tries in vain. 

Now see, by rustic hands, those pinions shorn, 

Whose speed was rapid as the beams of morn, 

And chains inglorious round those talons twined, 

Whose grasp the potent thunderbolt confined. 

Thus by the chains of sensual pleasure bound, 
The high-toned spirit, grovelling, licks the ground; 
Though destined far o'er earth's dull orb to soar, 
To mount with angels, and with saints adore. 



56 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Lo ! where yon falcon seeks his feast of blood, 
While screaming fowls pursue him o'er the flood ; 
A dastard race, the war of sounds they wage, 
And vent at distance safe their idle rage, 
For should he turn, their fleetest wing in vain 
To shun his ire would scour th' aerial plain: 
No servile bells his rapid flight controul, 
No lure proclaims the bondage of his soul; 
His claws in blood unordered he imbrues, 
And for himself the game of death pursues. 

With clam'rous din the hollow rocks resound, 
As flocks of sea-birds wheel their airy round ; 
Or, perching as they smoothe the ruffled plume, 
With rays of life the sombre cliffs illume, 
While all their notes in harmony combined, 
Swell the loud chorus of the sea and wind. 

Nature, great parent, 'tis thy care provides 
The down that clothes them, and the soul that guides, 
Handmaid of God, to system ever true, 
Yet ever-varying, and for ever new, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 57 

'Tis thine to arm their wave-repelling chest, 
To spread each pinion, and adorn each crest: 
Thou bid'st the sand- lark on the beach prepare 
An humble mansion for her tender care, 
While the bold Eagle, on yon cliffs afar, 
Soars to the storm, and braves th' ethereal war. 

When louring clouds the face of heaven o'ercast, 
What foresight wings the Petrel from the blast ? 
Steered by what pilot from the Arctic steep, 
Hies to these seas the Herdsman of the deep ? 
What bids the strong-winged Barnacle explore 
Through wintry skies her path to Erin's shore ? 

Ye feathered tribes who dwell these cliffs among, 
Unlike your brethren of the woodland song, 
Sure, unmolested in your rust-brown soil, 
Too poor for Envy, and too rough for Toil, 
Free and secure ye bide, nor see dismayed, 
The rustic plunderer e'er your rocks invade. 
Ah no ! for there will man, whose daring soul 
Would dive to hell, or climb the starry pole, 



58 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Pursue his upward, or his downward way, 
Fearless, and bold to make your haunts his prey. 
See, o'er the moated steep the peasant bends, 
Eyes the dread gulf, and girt with ropes descends: 
Tremendous task ! for should the cord dispart, 
Cut by the crag, or from the mortise sta*t, 
Precipitate he falls with horrid shock, 
Tossed round and round, and pitched from rock to rock. 
— Nor perils less his dreadful path assail, 
If from below the ragged heights he scale — 
Tremble the senses — terror chains the breath, 
Chill flows the blood, for one false step is death : 
Yet not with surer tread the wild goats climb 
Up Pleaskin's brow, or Benmore's cliffs sublime. 
He sees a thousand pinions round him fly, 
And hears unmoved the wild discordant cry; 
Cautious yet bold, each cranny he explores, 
Nor heeds the breeze-borne spray which far beneath 
him roars. 

Thou whose bold steps o'er those dread rampires stray* 
Bid heaven's winged agents guard thy dangerous way; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 59 

But tremble if thy stricken conscience groan 
For vows of broken love, or guilt unknown, 
Lest the dark spirit of the slipp'ry heath 
Hurl thee incautious on the rocks beneath. 

Where Rathlin braves the surge that round her rolls^, 
With chalky bastions, and basaltic moles, 
Dwelt fair Blanaid, of poets* song the theme, 
Fair as the maid of every poet's dream. 
Tinged was her cheek with health's vermillion dye, 
And joy and beauty frolicked in her eye ; 
For every youth her subtle chains she wove, 
And bound in fetters of relentless love, 
'Till Ullin's arms prevailed, and Conrigh's blade 
Had widowed Rathlin's towers, and won the maid. 

Of glory, grandeur, beauty's charms possess'd, 
What knight on earth was now like Conrigh bless'd ?■ 
More bless'd had fortune smiled not on his cause, 
Or given a consort bound by honour's laws : 
For UlhVs prince by mighty love subdued, 
To Fionglass his secret path pursued, 



60 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

And sought in safe disguise the lonely bowers, 
Where passed Blanaid her solitary hours, 
And sighed, and wept, and with seducing art, 
Bade her receive his sceptre, throne, and heart 
By love enthralled, or by ambition fired, 
Against her lord th' adulterous wife conspired : 
At dead of night a faithless vassal band, 
High in the turrets, lodged a flaming brand, 
And in the tumults of the purposed strife, 
A traitor's dagger stole her husband's life. 

Guilt sprang in terror from the murderous deed, 
And urged the trembling pair on wings of speed, 
To Ullin's shores — while o'er the warrior slain 
Long groups of mourners poured the funeral strain, 
And Fionglass through all its echoing shades, 
Heard the sad dole of youths, and weeping maids. 
But deepest flowed the bard's heart-swelling grief, 
For with a parent's love he loved the chief ; 
Oft as a parent had he marked with joy, 
The manly promise of the infant boy; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 61 

Had taught his youth to bend the flexile bow, 
To wield the spear, and chase the mountain roe, 
'Till ripe for war, his soul to glory turned, 
Where the steel ravaged, and the conflict burned. 
Oft as the aged sire his triumphs sang, 
With double life the Harp's roused spirit rang ; 
But now it pours in sad and mournful flow, 
From strings bedewed with tears, the dirge of woe. 

" Pale, pale, my son, how fade thy dreadful charms, 
u How nerveless lies the thunder of thy arms ! 
" Cold is the hand that ruled the maddening wheel, 
" And cold the breast whose valour edged the steel ! 
" Dark, ruthless treason on his slumbers crept, 
" And struck the dagger while the lion slept. 

" O Conrigh, Conrigh, hadst thou pressed the plain, 
"Mid arms, and steeds, and reeking mounds of slain, 
"But thus to feel th' assassin shaft of death, 
u Winged through black midnight by a woman's breath! 
" Inglorious fall !— my life of life is fled, 
" With thine this withered heart lies cold and dead. 



m THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

« Scathed by the fires of heaven, a trunk 1 stand, 
" Branchless and lonely, on a waste of sand : 
w O why does heaven the rooted oak up-tear, 
" But the old trunk, and useless sapling spare ? 
" Where was the bard, when sunk the warrior low, 
" With faithful breast to ward the treacherous blow ? 

" Dull through my veins life's languid currents roll, 
" Cold is the fire that once enflamed my soul ; 
" But yet one spark of righteous vengeance lives, 
" High Duty claims it, and 'tis Friendship gives: 
"Lo! Conrigh clothed in all his grim array, 
" Looks from his cloud, and chides my long delay. 

" Yet, mighty spirit, yet one deed remains, 
" And then I join thee in yon argent plains. 
« Eternal Justice, now thy bolts prepare, 
*' And strike the rabid she-wolf in her lair. 
" Vales, woods, and streams of Fionglass, adieu ! 
"Arise" my soul — to Ullin — rise, pursue!" 

Onward, indignant see the poet stride, 
A royal harp dependent at his side ; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 63 

Now gleams with angry fire his tearful eye, 
Like lightning flashing through a rainy sky; 
More rnpid now his hurrying sjep appears, 
Than suits the weakness of declining years ; 
"With patient toil o'er bog and moor he passed, 
'Till Dalriada's shores he viewed at last. 

A day of cheer had Ullin's prince proclaimed 
To all his nobles, and the day was named ; 
A hundred beeves, the best that grazed the plain, 
And bristly boars, and mountain deer were slain ; 
And knights, and lords, in broidered raiment proud, 
Before Blanaid their royal mistress bowed ; 
And wondering courtiers, as they gaily swore 
Such charms ne'er graced the land of green before, 
With no false praise seduced the captive ear, 
But once spake truth, and once were known sincere. 

Now rose the feast, and now the cup went round, 
And bards a hundred raised the festive sound : 
But who among them all so sweetly sings 
As that strange bard who strikes the sounding strings 



64 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Beside the Queen ? — How eager all admire 
His wild expression, and his hand of fire ! 
E'en other bards, though not to wonder prone, 
In listening to his song, forget their own. 

He sang the gallant deeds of warlike youth, 
The holy bliss of wedded love and truth, 
Of knight victorious on the listed plain, 
Of lover true by faithless mistress slain; 
And through a melting tale poured all his art, 
To touch the guilty fair one's conscious heart: 
And though with well-dissembling skill she tried 
The mixed emotions of her soul to hide, 
Oft as she met the bard's accusing look, 
Shame tinged her cheek, and rage her bosom shook. 

That night no slumber on her eyelid stole, 
For sad remorse sat heavy on her soul, 
And whilst in revelry, and wild delight, 
The prince and courtiers lengthened out the night, 
She mused retired — when on her startled ear, 
Burst the shrill piercing cry of sudden fear; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. G5 

Her aged nurse bad shriek' d aloud to see 

The shadowy spectre of the fell Banshee : 

A hag deformed of fairy size it seemed; 

And wrung its tiny hands, and faintly screamed, 

While on the topmost battlement it stood, 

Of woe prophetic to Milesian blood. 

Next day forth summoned to the tented plain, 
In martial sports contend the royal train ; 
While fair Blanaid to soothe her sad alarms, 
Roved round the capes, and courted Nature's charms; 
Alas ! what joy can Nature's charms impart, 
When guilt confounds, and conscience rives the heart ? 
The wary bard, by chance or fate, had seen 
The lonely wanderings of the trouble-d queen, 
And marked the barrier where, in pensive mood, 
Perhaps repentant of her crime, she stood : 
Her snow-white vestments waved with sinuous flow 
O'er the tremendous gulf that yawned below ; 
Full-orbed arose her bosom's downy swell, 
Wooed by the amorous breeze her tresses fell, 
And from her swimming eyes voluptuous blue, 
Rolled many a precious drop of crystal dew. 

K 



Q6 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Thus high- surcharged with tears of vernal shower, 
On some proud terrace,bends the stately flower, 
'Till the chill rustling of the bleak North-west 
Shake them in ice-drops from its fragrant breast. 

Majestic beauty ! could thy potent charm 
Melt frozen age, or stern resolve disarm, 
Then had the bard to ruth his soul inclined, 
And cursed the dreadful act his thought designed; 
But mightier Friendship's mandate had decreed, 
Th' adulterous wife for Conrigh slain should bleed. 

Ere slow suspicion touched the courtiers' breast, 
The bard approached, and thus the queen addressed : 
<( Alas, fond wretch ! and darest thou hope to prove 
" The honours of a throne, the bliss of love ? 
" Behold thy murdered husband's spectre wave 
"His beckoning hand, and call thee to the grave : 
" To flee essay not — earth's united bands 
" In vain would snatch thee from these vengeful hands." 

" Stay, stay, rash bard ! thy soul let pity bend, 
Angels of mercy here your wings extend ! 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 67 

Ah me ! no angels from destruction guard, 
But conscience whispers this is guilt's reward." 

Seized in his death-grasp hangs the struggling fair, 
As he dives headlong down th* abyss of air. — 
— The sea-fowl, startled by the rushing sound, 
Saw their torn limbs from rock to rock rebound; 
And as they plunged tho roaring waves among, 
Raised their shrill notes, and screamed the funeral 
song. 

END OF BOOK SECOND, 






u:,!iiii 



IS 



GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 



ARGUMENT. 



Lucretius... Praise3 of Philosophy... Fire, the supposed cause 
of basaltic phenomena... .Nature and Properties of that 
element... Volcanoes... Plato's Atlantic isle...Hecla....ffit- 
na... Destruction of Catania. ..Vesuvius. ..Pompeia... Death 
of Pliny... Earthquakes... Calloa sunk... Rathlin dissevered 
from the main land... .Basaltic columns formed by the 
sudden refrigeration, or the gradual crystallization of la- 
va.. .The Neptunian hypothesis... The golden age.. .Uni- 
versal deluge... Its effects... Basalt formed by deposition, 
and consequent desiccation... Objection to this theory... 
A sage of Edina explains the Huttonian hypothesis... 
The changes which the works of nature undergo, are 
not followed by destruction, but 'renovation... The pres- 
ent earth formed from the debris of an antecedent one... 
Central fires... Consolidation and elevation of the strata 
...Injection of ores into veins... Crystallization of basalt 
...Fall of a cliff at Benmore... Farther illustration of the 
Huttonian theory... A principle of self-renovation per- 
vades the universe... Evening... Address to the deity. 



THE 
GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

BOOK THIRD. 

SUBLIME Lucretius ! thou whose daring page 
Breathes the high spirit of th' Athenian sage, 
With whom high-soaring to the cause of things, 
Thy soul quaffed deep the muse's hidden springs ; 
Come to these capes that brave the northern gale, 
And bid, as thou wert wont, blue ocean bail. 
Come, hear with me, the big tumultuous waves 
Bursting like thunder through a thousand caves, 
And see the bark which blackening tempests urge, 
Hide o'er the hills of foam, and meet the boisterous 
surge. 



'2 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 



Thrice happy he, whose truth-illumined soul 
With Science wanders through the boundless whole; 
No angry fiends of night her skies deform, 
Or round her roll the lightning and the storm ; 
Where'er she turns, to earth, or heaven, she sees 
The real heralds of divine decrees. 
Now plunging downward, see her urge her flight 
Through the dark realms of chaos and of night; 
Now mid the zones, she spreads her wings afar, 
Soars to the sun, and visits every star, 
And scanning Nature's universal laws, 
Mounts from the second to th' eternal cause. 

Here, by o'erhanging rocks, where Danger keeps 
His dreary watch-tower trembling o'er the deeps, 
Th* adventurous muse's anxious thoughts explore 
What power of Nature formed the pillared shore. 
Here, hapless Hamilton, lamented name ! 
To fire volcanic traced the curious frame, 
And, as his soul, by sportive fancy's aid, 
Up to the fount of time's long current strayed, 
Far round these rocks he saw fierce craters boil* 
And torrent lavas flood the riven soil : 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 73 

Saw vanquished Ocean from his bounds retire, 
And hailed the wonders of creative Fire. 



Fire, noblest element that Nature wields, 
In earth, and air, and empyrean fields ; 
'Tis thine to feed the golden lamp of day, 
To fix the bounds of stern Attraction's sway, 
To give the wandering orbs repulsive force, 
And guide the wheels of Nature in their course : 
Thine too to fructify the germs of earth, 
Clothe the green sward, and give all creatures birth, 
To breathe life, love, and rapture through the breeze, 
Dissolve the icy poles, and roll the purple seas. 

Fire, mighty power, in many a clime adored 
As Beal, Phoebus, and creation's Lord, 
Armed by thy might see man resistless reign 
Lord of the brute, the mountain, and the main : 
Unwearied element, in thee unite 
All beauty, colour, heat, and cheering light. 
Light ! sacred effluence from the blest abode, 
Fairest, best image of all-bounteous God, 

L 



74 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Rapid as thought thy emanations glide, 
Of all material things to spirit most allied ; 
In vest Like thine, so pure, so heavenly clear, 
Shall man, disrobed of flesh, at last appear, 
Raised from the earth, and equalled to thy sphere. 

Heralds of nature, ye whose wondrous art 
Can light and heat, a wedded pair, dispart. 
And o'er the plain, with magick skill, diffuse 
One radiant beam in seven resplendent hues; 
Or- to a point condense the scattered rays, 
Whose force more potent than the furnace blaze, 
As fire the wax, each stubborn ore commands, 
And bursts the diamond's adamantine bands; 
Say, to what orb those mighty torrents run, 
Which issue ceaseless from the golden sun ; 
If, in th' expanse they waste their rapid force, 
Or haste like rivers to their parent source; 
And, in the vortex of their circling tide, 
Around the fount of day the planets guide ? 
Say, are the forky bolt's electric flame, 
The fires of earth, and solar beam the same ? 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 75 

In every clime before the muse's eyes, 
What steps of fire ; what smoking hills arise ! 
Lo ! Cotopaxi from his fiery throne, 
With rapid blazes lights the burning zone ; 
In realms of frost the drear Kamchatka glows; 
Fuego hisses in coeval snows; 
Yet fires more frequent rise where summer smiles 
On India's beauteous galaxy of isles, 
Where Banda's nutmeg groves the air perfume. 
Or rich Manilla's groves of cotton bloom ; 
From east to west volcanic torrents roll, 
Gird the vast globe, and glow at either pole. 

Has Erin too once felt the torrid pest ?— *■ 
Its records live deep graven on her breast; 
And time has been, when spread her vales and woods,. 
Where now blue ocean rolls unfathomed floods; 
A land where Nature wore her sweetest smile. 
To Plato known, and named th' Atlantic isle, 
'Till mining fires, or earthquake's awful might 
Sunk half its peopled states in endless night. 
The far Ebudae, scattered though they stand, 
Once with her confines formed continuous land ; 



76 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

And through calm seas, the swain yet views with 

dread 
The space between, with towers and cities spread. 

Creative fanc}% thou whose mirror bright 
Gives past and future to th' enraptured sight, 
And bids each distant scene arise pourtrayed, 
In all its native hues of light and shade ; 
Give me to view, from this basaltic pile, 
Huge iEtna's caves, and Hecla's flaming isle ; 
How fierce, how wide their fires tremendous glow, 
What fans their rage, and whence their lavas flow. 

What fiery whirlwinds raging to the sky ! 
What glowing rocks in long projectiles fly ! 
O'er fields of ice red lavas urge their way; 
In nine-fold strength the scalding Geysers play ; 
Swoln by a thousand congregating rills, 
Bolls the deep snow-flood down the smoking hills; 
And hark ! the Skrida thundering to the plain, 
With all its serried glaciers roars amain, 
Whelming the flocks — Unhappy shepherds spring, 
Vain is your speed without the lightning's wing : 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 11 

Fire, water, frost, in horrid strife rebel, 
And realize th' enthusiast's dreams of hell. 



In Hecla these. — High-throned above the storm, 
Thy genius, iEtna, lifts his awful form ; 
Beneath his view extends a boundless scene; 
Kingdoms, and isles, and ocean's glassy green ; 
Three zones distinct his various realm enfold, 
Deep snows, and vernal flowers, and groves of gold : 
Now wrapt in clouds his giant port he hides, 
And shakes with dreadful peals the mountain sides, 
'Till through exploding cliffs the lava sweeps; 
Rapid, resistless, blazing down the steeps, 
Onward it comes — the crackling forests bend, 
Towers, villas, cities, from their base descend, 
Melt in the mass, and with the torrent blend. 
The dust of desolation loads the air, 
And crashing domes re-echo with despair ; 
Where now, Catania, are thy myrtle bowers, 
Thy purple vineyards, and thy fields of flowers, 
Thy sons, thy daughters ? all deep-smouldering spread 
Beneath th' unsparing lava's smoking bed. 



*& THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Not with less ruin, on the blasted plain, 
See fell Vesuvius showers of cinders rain ; 
Such horrid shower on Sodom's towers accurst, 
Of wasting fire, and livid brimstone burst. 
Deep, deep beneath, entombed the valley lies, 
O'er lofty spires the arid billows rise, 
And a new soil mounts nearer to the skies. 
Fair bloomed the vine o'er where Pompeia lay, 
*TilI peasants' hands revealed it to the day; 
What scenes then burst upon the wondering sight ? 
A city old revealed to modern light I 
Thus saved through ages from severer doom, 
From all the plagues and swords that wasted Rome,* 
And time's destroying rage — its ancient frame, 
Its pictures, fanes and statues still the same ! 
Thy chambers, death, stood thickly ranged around, 
And many a corse adust bestrewed tlie ground ; 
There timid youth, and manhood's noble pride, 
And helpless age, and woman's beauty died ; 
There as she clasped her infant to her breast, 
Th' affrighted mother shrieked, and sunk to rest 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 79 

Oft as the burning cone the heavens enshrouds. 
With pumice showers, and cineritious clouds, 
Winged with what speed the trembling natives fly, 
Fear in their steps, distraction in their eye ; 
Sons, mothers, daughters — whereso'er they turn, 
Sinks the loose soil, the sulphurous cinders burn. 
And deadly vapours mingling in the strife 
Arrest their speed, and close the gates of life. 

But mark the sage- — no fears his soul annoy, 
He sees the revels of the storm with joy ; 
As Nature's priest, the goddess hails from far, 
While wrapt in volleying flame she wakes the war; 
The fiery whirlwinds that around him roll, 
Shoot but congenial grandeur to his soul. 

Through fear-winged fleets that fly the rocking shore, 
Verona's sage directs his adverse prore ; 
Though dark around condensing vapours lour, 
And the deck smokes beneath the glowing shower, 
With quick-enquiring eye serene he stands, 
As though the tempest owned his guiding hands : 



\30 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

So stands the chief in self-collected might, 

Whose soul pervades, and rules the ranks of fight. 

Ah ! why so daring ? — Will the crater's rage 

Relent in pity, and respect thy age ? 

Already round thee floats its noxious breath ; 
Martyr of Nature ! 'tis the air of death. 
Yet glorious is thy fall on Nature's shrine, 
How blest, how envied is a fate like thine I 
Immortal glories crown the sage's brow, 
Virtue's best meed, the muse's sacred bough, 
Who dares, like Spalding, dive beneath the main, 
Or with De Rozier mount th* ethereal plain; 
Or who, like Richman, aiming to command, 
And grasp the forky lightning in his hand, 
Invites with Semele the Thunderer's fires, 
And in the worship that he pays, expires. 

Scenes yet more dire arrest the muse's view, 
Where earthquake wastes the climes of rich Peru. 
Tremendous agent of th' eternal might, 
Dark, silent, secret, in the realms of night, 
Unheard, unseen, he plans his dread designs, 
Scoops all his rocks, and labours all his mines. 



THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 81 

Now awful stillness reigns, as Nature lay- 
Entranced in woe, and feared her final day; 
Quivers the foliage where no zephyr roves, 
And beasts and birds cower trembling in the groves ; 
Man too stands shuddering with unwonted fear; 
Strange sounds appal, and boding signs appear ; 
In earth's dark caves terrific thunders roll, 
Peal bursts on peal and seems to rend the pole : 
Now rocks the furrowed ground, dim meteors glare, 
The severing ocean lays his channels bare ; 
Huge Andes bows — the world's long bulwarks nod, 
And humbled nature feels the arm of God. 
What now is man with all his boasted powers, 
His castled rocks, his pyramids and towers? 
Down, down the gulf his sapped foundations fall, 
Camps, fleets, and cities — Ruin whelms them all ! 
And Ocean rolls his wild infuriate flood, 
Where Calloa's towers this moment glittering stood. 

Such quick destruction by th' Eternal sent, 
The old foundations of Ierne rent ; 
The bursting shores in dread explosion pealed, 
And from their rooted base the mountains reeled ; 



82 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

While Rathlin, severed with tremendous roar, 
Three leagues of ocean from her parent shore, 
Saw tides conflicting wildly rush between 
Her southern limits, and the land of green. 

Thus, if aright* the philosophic sage 
Read the dark records of creation's page, 
From Gallia's strand did ocean's rushing tide 
The chalky cliffs of Albion erst divide ; 
Thus earthquake's fury from Ausonia tore 
The sounding caverns of Trinacria's shore; 
And Europe saw where great Alcides' hand 
Fix'd the proud limits of Hesperian land, 
Th* Atlantic floods their feeble barriers cleave, 
And o'er the plain a whelming deluge heave, 
Where now the mid-land billows court the gales, 
And Afric's sands disjoin from Europe's vales. 

Calm midst the horrors of the rueful scene, 
Majestic Nature sat, and smiled serene, 
Planned on the reeling shores her fair designs, 
And built her future palaces and shrines. — 






THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 83 

—From teeming craters, gushing dense and strong 

The black basaltic deluge pours along, 

O'ertops the chalky cliffs, the valley fills, 

Binds the loose soil, and links the severed hills. 

Here the red torrent, by the rapid shock 

Of frigid waters, changed to pillared rock; 

Or pent in caves till thrilled by tardy cold, 

Shot into columns of gigantic mould. 

Thus in the chymic vase, attraction's law 

Bids each fine atom kindred atoms draw : 

Close and more close the crouding seeds combine, 

Till crystal forms in fair arrangement shine. 

For all the various forms which nature breeds 

Spring from the union of organic seeds, 

Which, by attraction, form their compound frame, 

In shape, in nature, and in laws the same : 

Hence, in fair crystals falls the flaky snow, 

And hence the facets of the diamond glow. 

Now round these capes a holy calmness reigns, 
But still the pristine stamp of fire remains, 
Struck on each pillared promontory's head, 
And in the iron oxyd's vermeil bed. 



84 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

The muse beholds it in the mine profound, 
And sees volcanic scoriae strew the ground. 

Yet fiercer flames shall round these cliffs aspire, 
When heaven has kindled nature's funeral pyre ; 
The rocks, the hills, the earth shall fade away, 
Like a thin vapour in the orient ray : 
Virtue alone shall lift her changeless form, 
And spring to heaven triumphant o'er the storm. 
Or, if thy genius, Whiston, right divined, 
Earth's ponderous orb by torturing fires refined, 
And changed through all its dark opacous mass, 
Shall roll through heaven a globe of purest glass, 
Heaven's image fair reflected on its breast, 
Formed for th' abode of saints, and spirits of the bless'd. 

Now see how other hands this Mole design, 
With plastic skill, beneath the raging brine. 
Neptunian Kirwan, green Ierne's pride, 
And he the sage of Freybourg by his side, 
Led by the seer inspired, whose raptured eyes 
First saw the heavens and earth from chaos rise 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY* 85 

In the vast deluge form the fabrick dense, 
And with creation thus the theme commence. 

At first from chaos, when th' almighty king 
Bade earth and order, light and beauty spring ; 
Light robed the heavens, and glittering to the sun 
With poles erect the rounded planet spun ; 
Perennial spring adorned the hill and wood, 
And heaven's eternal word pronounced them good. 
Life with the shelly tribes its course began, 
Thence rose to insect, bird, and beast, and man ; 
.Rank upon rank in fair gradation joined^ 
'Till linked to heaven by the chain of mind. 
Then, blessed was man, as saints in worlds above, 
For earth was paradise, and life was love • 
'Till cursed ambition, of infernal birth, 
Breathed her contagious poison o'er the earth ; 
Seized by the pest, man grasped the hostile blade, 
And murder then, as now, became a trade — 
Crime follows crime, and smokes of carnage rise 
Reeking in purple volumes to the skies. 



86 THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 

u No more my spirit/' cried th' Almighty Lord, 
Earth trembling heard th* irrevocable word, 
* With graceless man an endless conflict wage, 
a Be loose ye torrents, let Destruction rage/' 



Heaven's dreaded agents on the torrents sweep, 
Plunge down, and rive the barriers of the deep ; 
Rouse into rage each congregating tide, 
And thrust the axis of the globe aside. 
Earth to her centre strange commotion feels. 
And rent and shattered in her orbit reels; 
So reels the bark, when o'er her groaning mast, 
The liquid mountain rolls before the blast ; 
Above, below, th' encreasing deluge roars, 
Streamsburst their banks, and oceans rive their shores. 
Dismayed, appalled, in vain would man retreat, 
Th' avenging billows croud around his feet; 
He climbs the pine, the rock, or high-peaked hill, 
But swifter fate remorseless follows still ; 
Wider and wider yet the deluge spreads, 
O'ertops the cliffs, and beats the mountain heads; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 87 

Now its fierce rage insatiate swallows all, 
And drives, resistless, round the shoreless ball : 
One bark alone, the womb of nations, rides, 
By heaven made buoyant o'er the whelming tides. 

Then tossed the earth, a chaos rude and vast, 
Till o'er its face the brooding spirit passed, 
And bade the mantling elements enrobe 
The granite nucleus of the fractured globe. 
Then deep beneath, the chalky strata spread, 
Pressed by a ponderous, dark, basaltic bed : 
Hence, mingled lie the earth's and ocean's soils, 
And arctic regions teem with eastern spoils : 
On Erin's moors the wondering peasants rear 
Th' enormous antlers of the stranger deer; . 
Hence, shells in rock to ore transmuted shine, 
Hence, in silicious spires long serpents twine ; 
The dotted urchin's studs the cliffs adorn, 
And blue basalt is stamped with Amnion's horn. 

Now ceased the din of waters waste and wild, 
And heaven from azure skies relenting smiled ; 



88 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Bent in the clouds the bow of peace is seen. 
Swift arid breezes sweep the floods serene ; 
Like isles emergent to celestial air, 
O'er the sunk waves the mountain tops stand bare ; 
Lower, and lower yet the floods descend, 
Now rocky shores in sinuous grandeur bend ; 
The mists disperse, the Lord of day returns, 
His brightning glory on the planet burns ; 
Far o'er the deep the gilded islands gleam, 
And emerald Erin sparkles in the beam. 

Like sable paste each mass basaltic lay 
Smooth, solid, deep, and smoking to the day, 
Till smote by summer's sun, and winter's wind, 
In jointed columns, groups on groups combined, 
Here raised erect, majestic o'er the brine, 
There curved to beauty's ever- varying line, 
The mass dissevering shrunk : — hence Murloch's train 
Of huge artillery pointing to the main ; 
Gigantic battery ! — Hence the capes of Doon, 
Curved like the watry bow, or crescent moon ; 
While Booshala beholds her pillared cone, 
Like old Alcinous' bark transformed to stone. 



■i 




e 
© 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 89 

Thus built, thus modelled, Dalriada's sides 
Resist the heavens, the whirlwinds, and the tides; 
As years on years in time's wide orbit wheel, 
They dread no change, and no abrasion feel. 

Druids of science, to the muse disclose 
From what vast source th' o'erwhelming deluge rose : 
Did swathing clouds the watry pest sustain, 
Or earth, till then, in hollow sphere contain? 
Or some dire comet, high surcharged with harm, 
Hurled through th* ecliptic by th* Eternal arm, 
Shower from his twisted locks the torrent strong 
Of big destruction, as he rolled along; 
Ye too unfold how water's chymic power 
Dissolved the fabric in that awful hour ; 
When sunk the strata, what prevailing cause 
Deposed them adverse to attraction's laws ? 
Say whence light sand-stone to the centre, strove, 
While dense basalt in grandeur towered above? 
O that the light of some celestial ray 
Would touch my soul and clear these doubts away ! 

N • 



90 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Thus as I mused, a hoary sage drew nigh, 
Of aspect bland, and mind-illumined eye; 
To Dalriada's shores of distant fame, 
From fair Edina's lofty towers he came. 
Blest towers ! — whose genius eagle-winged pursues 
The boldest flights of science, and the muse $ 
His words flowed placid in a dulcet stream, 
Pouring new lustre on the rugged theme ; 
While, as inspired by him whose glowing car 
Leapt o'er the hollow globe's opposing bar, 
And downward wheeling through the dread unknown; 
Saw Nature seated on her burning throne ; 
He taught that central fires up-heaved the earth 
From ocean's depths, and gave these wonders birth. 

" In vain," the sage began, " would man pretend 
To trace of things the origin and end ; 
What thought has fathomed the abyss of time ? 
When bloomed his youth, and when began his prime ? 
Through endless cycles Nature lives the same, 
In ocean, earth, and heaven's resplendent frame. 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 91 

Hers are the honours of perennial youth, 
Of stable grandeur, and unvarying truth j 
If wasting years her various forms consume, 
Again they thrive in renovated bloom ; 
Changed, not destroyed, they seek another mould, 
And new creations triumph o'er the old. 
Round the fall'n trunk, see giant forests rise ; 
In one small seed the germ of navies lies ; 
Life follows death, as death succeeds to life, 
Perpetual circle of harmonious strife. 

"Ere those tall cliffs beheld the orient sun, 
Earth round her poles with other aspect spun, 
'Till through the lapse of long revolving age, 
The dash of ocean and the tempest's rage, 
Her yielding frame by slow corrosion wore, 
And to the deep's unfathomed channels bore ; 
Where soon the searching fires that ever glow, 
Far in the centre of the world below, 
Shot through th' incumbent waste ; while ocean's flood. 
Enormous depth, with ponderous pressure stood, 



92 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY, 

Like thick-ribbed ice, or more impervious glass, 

Locking in grasp so close the molten mass, 
That no fine vapour thence could wing its flight, 
And rise, soft-bubbling to the bourne of light, 

"Then, close condensed were Ocean's shelly spoils, 
O'er granite, porphry, and the schistose soils, 
And ranged concentric round their nucleus lay, 
Till time once more recalled them to the day. 

" With what tremendous force, aerial powers, 
Once did ye rage in subterraneous bowers, 
When roused by torturing fires from all your caves, 
Ye swept the glowing lava's sulphurous waves; 
Ye then beheld the thundering waters pass 
Through wide rent gulfs, and changed to instant gas ; 
Struggling for vent again they upward roll. 
And burst their narrow bounds from pole to pole. 
*Twas nature's throe, and from the labouring frame, 
The solid strata, midst encircling flame, 
Severed and torn, their serried peaks upreared, 
And o'er the foamy surge the new-formed land ap- 
peared. 






THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 93 

" How bold and craggy rose each mountain form, 
To brave the heavens, the lightning, and the storm ! 
Arched o'er hell's gulf their strong foundation spreads, 
While azure skies surround their hoary heads, 
Where horrid glaciers cast a dismal shade, 
And wildly roars unseen the fierce cascade ; 
Bleak, dense, immoveable !— for many an age 
On their rived front has burst the thunder's rage ; 
E'en now the sapping force of Time they feel, 
Again pre-doomed down ruin's gulf to reel, 
With all their granite rocks, and cliffs of steel. 

"Then, floods of lava, with impetuous force, 
From central regions urged their upward course ; 
As from the heart propelled, the blood distils 
Through man's fair structure, by meandering rills, 
So forced through many a rent, and opening pore, 
From earth's vast cauldrons gushed each fluid ore ; 
Then spread o'er Dalriada's northern side, 
Through chalky cliffs, a deep basaltic tide; 
Prismatic here the ocean's ire it braves, 
But towers amorphous on the hill of caves j / 

Thick studded o'er with zeolitic stars, 
Drusy, or glittering with refulgent spars ; 



M THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

Then many a cavern, cell, and grot profound, 
Saw beauteous crystals shoot their walls around, 
And every metal, earth, and air condense, 
To form the sparry cube, the rhomb, and lens. 

" Soon as the new-formed world beheld the day, 
It felt the mining touch of slow decay ; 
The floods retreating, all resistance mock ; 
Plow through the vales, and cut the channelled rock. 
Thus with creation, ruin's steps commence ; 
Thus death is mingled with the nascent ens ; 
Time deem not tardy, though a thousand years, 
To sense unchanged the mountain rock appears; 
A thousand years to time's eternal race, 
Are but an instant, as a point to space. 

But hark ! that crash — again more loud it roars, 
And louder yet — -it shakes the trembling shores, 
As if th' infuriate spirit of the blast, 
Trod down the cliffs in anger as he passed ; 
The fierce collision fires th' horizon round, 
With heedless fear the rapid wild goats bound, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 95 

The miner issuing from the quarrie's gloom, 
Thinks with dismay 'tis now the hour of doom. 

- 'Tis Benmore, struck by time's destroying mace, 
Crashing in thunder from his mouldering base. 
Thus by degrees shall Erin's shores decay, 
Sink her proud cliffs, her hills dissolve away. 
The soil where Holland's fertile gardens blow, 
Once strewed the mountains capt with Alpine snow; 
On Abyssinian hills, redundant Nile 
Once saw the Delta's beauteous landscapes smile. 
Lo ! every storm that sweeps the crumbling hill, 
And every shower, and cataract, and rill, 
And every wave that climbs the beetling steep, 
Abrades the rocks, and bears them to the deep. 
But from the mighty waste does nature's hand, 
Working unseen, prepare the future land; 
Again her central fires shall fiercely glow T , 
And heave new mountains from the depths below; 
Her plastic care o'ertakes the waster's rage, 
And builds new worlds on worlds from age to age. 



96 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY." 

« Ye fair-haired wanderers of the skies sublime, 
For ever roll, nor fear the steps of time, 
For should he reach you on th' ethereal way, 
And shade the glories that around you play, 
Yet brighter lustre shall your forms illume, 
Yet fairer glow your renovating bloom. 
Immortal Newton ! throned above the spheres, 
Thou now can'st tell how vain are human fears ; 
E'en thy great soul its powers expanding feels, 
And hails with joy the light that Truth reveals, 
Recants thy errors in creation's plan, 
And smiles, an angel, at the doubts of man ! 
Tho' orbs on orbs in lessening gyres advance, 
Mark'd are the limits of the mystic dance ; 
In narrower now, and now in wider rounds, 
Wheel their bright globes, but ne'er o'erleap their 

bounds ; 
Yet should whole systems upon systems fall, 
And one tremendous ruin threaten all, 
*Tis change, not death; for in more beauteous skies, 
New suns would kindle, and new systems rise : 
Then roll ye orbs, in youth eternal roll, 
For in ye dwells a self-creating soul." 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 97 

Thus taught the sage, and thus in humble rhyme, 
The muse essays to clothe the theme sublime : 
Blest should her Anderson the strain regard, 
Friend of the lyre, and guardian of the bard; 
Thou, formed by heaven, to act the critic's part, 
With truth, taste, judgment, and a feeling heart; 
I see, I see poetic shades descend 
To hail thee patron, father, guide and friend ; 
And from their laurelled heads a bough entwine, 
To see it bloom with fresher grace on thine ! 

Now low descending in th' Atlantic waves, 
His yellow locks the day's bright regent laves ; 
The lengthening shadows of the burnished steep, 
Shoot down the vales, or tremble on the deep ; 
The fisher's skiff, smooth-gliding round the shores, 
Displays like bars of gold her glancing oars ; 
The curlew's whistle echoes o'er the strand, 
And shrill-piped sea-larks print the yielding sand j 
Now from his kiln the wearied swain retires, 
Rich with the produce of his sea-weed fires; 
Slow up the cliff he winds his homeward way, 
Yet turns, full oft, to view the sun's departing ray. 



98 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

All-powerful Nature ! how in every age, 
Thy charms delight the peasant and the sage ! 
Parent of all, or novel, grand or fair, 
What bosom owns not thy parental care, 
Feels not thy influence rapturous and divine. 
And yields spontaneous homage at thy shrine ? 

Now fair investing all the forms of things, 
Wide o'er the scene her tints grey Ev'ning flings, 
Gives to the sombre cliffs a darker hue, 
And robes the mountains in a deeper blue. 
And see where Hesper, pilot star of love, 
Majestic moves through yon fair fields above, 
With silvery light her crystal tresses teem, 
And playful lustres o'er the waters gleam. 
So shines in glory, lovely yet sublime, 
The bright Ascendant of our northern clime, 
Antrim's fair dame, when on her native shore, 
Land of her great heroic sires of yore, 
She rays the beams of ancient splendour wide, 
And lights her halls of hospitable pride ; 
Attempering soft in one harmonious whole, 
The woman's softness with the heroe's soul, 



THE GIANTS* CAUSEWAY. 99 

That sweet enchantment which all hearts can please, 
Mildness with power, and dignity with ease. 
Oft may thy presence, Lady, grace the isle, 
Cheer thy fair glens, and make thy mountains smile, 
And as yon planet, from its argent way, 
On these bleak cliffs reflects the tide of day ; 
So thou, Illustrious, shed these shores around, 
The softened virtues of thy sires renowned; 
Truth's open spirit, gen'rous thirst of fame, 
The patriot soul, and honour's sacred flame. 

Sweet Contemplation, be this hour thy own, 
To guide aloft thy " fiery -wheeled throne." 
While beats the heart, transported with the view, 
While starts the tear to fond devotion true, 
Muse on the ways of him, th' almighty king, 
Who bade for thee such boundless glories spring. 
See how o'er all, eternal order reigns, 
In earth, and ocean, and the starry plains ; 
How the fierce warring elements fulfil 
God's wise decrees, and good educe from ill. 
Revenge, ambition, faction and the sword. 
And man's blind ire shall praise the righteous Lord,* 



100 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

The phrophet's purposed curse with blessings teems; 
From present woe perennial comfort streams ; 
Taught by Misfortune's hard but useful rod, 
See humbled pride adore the pardoning God ; 
And at the shrine which pampered Affluence spurns, 
The sack-clothed sinner with devotion burns. 

What impious science bade thejpoet stray, 
With the blest Nine, through folly's godless way, 
Him who with sweet and noble frenzy sang 
That all from brute unconscious matter sprang ? 
Oh ! impotence of reason, blind and vain, 
How grew such folly in a sage's brain ? 
See as he lifts his soaring thoughts on high, 
And heaven's bright glories meet his raptured eye, 
Struck with what awe th' admiring peasant stands, 
Bows to his God, and spreads his suppliant hands: 
And shall the sage, in impious error brave, 
Question that power, which power to question gave ? 
The thought that only doubts, in folly blind, 
Itself confutes, for mind must spring from mind. 
Yes, one great cause formed this amazing scene, 
Fired every star, and spread yon blue serene; 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 101 

Bade round the heart, life's ruddy current rofl, 
And breathed thro' moulded clay the thinking soul. 
In every wing that cuts th* aerial tides, 
In every fin that through the ocean glides, 
In every shell that studs the sea-beat strand, 
And bud and flower which western gales expand, 
Such beauty mingles with such reach of thought, 
As nought, save power divine, could e'er have 

wrought ; 
He, only He, with wisdom's stores replete, 
He in whose essence all perfections meet. 
E'en these bleak rocks deep stablished in the brine, 
Declare the sovereign architect divine : 
His is the storm, the whirlwind, and the shower, 
The blazing lightning, and the thunder's power. — 
When Fate, in darkness stalks her dismal round, 
When oceans whelm, and earthquakes rock the ground, 
'Tis he who sends the dread destroyer forth, 
Speeds the wet South, and drives the freezing North, 
Who treads the surge, the bolts' swift vengeance flings, 
And walks upon the tempest's sounding wings, 
Chained down to earth, or rapt to heaven abroad,, 
In all we see an omnipresent God ; 



102 THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 

And every cause in Nature's ample reign 
Forms but a link of that unmeasured chain, 
Which holds earth, seas, and skies, and worlds un- 
known, 
Hung in stupendous poise from God's eternal throne, 

O thou who rul'st o'er ocean, earth, and air, 
Whose sov'reign power but willed, and all things were; 
While Nature's devious wilds my thoughts explore, 
Teach me to love thee, honour, and adore, 
In thee to hail the animating soul, 
That forms, supports, adorns, pervades the whole ; 
Thou first great cause whence all creation springs, 
The world's just ruler and the king of kings. 
Though high thou reign'st, unbounded and alone* 
The Lord of worlds on worlds to man unknown, 
Yet not a flower its bosom can unfold, 
With perfume rich., or diademed with gold* 
No not a blade that decks the vernal green, 
No, not a sand in ocean rolls unseen 
By thee Omniscient ! — Be this truth impress'd 
With firm devotion on thy votary's breast, 



THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. 103 

Then should the earth in wild disorder run, 

Or night primeval seize the golden sun, 

No wayward fear my stedfast soul shall harm, 

My hope diminish, or my faith disarm. 

But as the eagle that exulting soars 

Beyond her eyry, when the whirlwind roars, 

And o'er the lightnings that beneath her play, 

Spreads her broad pinions to the blaze of day j 

So shall the soul o'er death's dominion rise, 

And mount in glory to her kindred skies; 

Unchained from earth, escaped her dungeon's gloom, 

To live and flourish in immortal bloom. 

END OF THE POEM. 



NOTES, 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 



Note I. p. 3. 
The echoes of thy hundred eaves: 

The name of the county of Antrim is probably deri- 
ved from Tlr an ttfam, the land of caves. These abound 
every where along the coast, and in all its various stra- 
ta. Thus, they penetrate the amorphous basalt of the Cave- 
hill, and the Gobbiris, the red ochre of Cushendall, the 
pudding stone of Cushendun, and the limestone of Larne, 
Ballintoy, and Dunluce. Some of these caves, parti- 
cularly those of Cushendun and Ballintoy, are dry and 
roomy, affording the fishermen comfortable accommoda- 
tion for building their boat?, and keeping them during 
winter. Grace Staples' cave, between Ballycastle and Ken- 
ban, is remarkable for the columnarity of its sides, in 
which particular it resembles Fingal's cave in the island 
of Staffa. The cave of Port Coon, at the Giant's Causes- 
way, is celebrated for its fine echo, continually resound- 
ing tc? the dash of the waves. But no cave on the coast 
of Antrim can vie in grandeur with that of Dunkerry, 
between Port Coon, and the Bush-foot-strand. It is acces- 
sible only from the ocean, between two mural ridges of 
jet-black rock. Its lofty dome and sides are overspread 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 107 

with a covering of green confervae, which suggests the idea 
that it might have been scooped out of solid emeraid. A 
crimson zone of marine plants, five or six feet in breadth, 
above the surface of the water, surrounds and adorns it. 
The extent of this cave has not been ascertained, as boats 
are prevented from penetrating to its extremity by the con- 
traction of its sides into a very narrow cleft, through which 
the waves are heard rolling to a considerable distance. See 
page 39. 

Dr. Ogilby ingeniously supposes that caves are formed 
in many instances, by the matter of whin dykes having 
been impeded at the time of deposition by the contiguity 
of the original fissures, which the dykes now occupy. He 
observed several caves on the coast of Antrim roofed with 
that particular conformation of basalt known by the name 
ef whindykes. 

Note II. p. 5. 

............... As though the magic hand 

Of some cerulean nymph, &c. 
This idea was suggested by the following lines in a ma- 
nuscript poem of the Rev. H. Boyd, the learned translator 
of Dante. 

The welkin frowned, yet on the placid face 

Of the still main the mountain shadows lay, 

As if some airy pencil deigned to trace 

Their giant features on the gloomy bay. 

Note III. p. 6. 
Seek Dalriadas ivild romantic shore. 
Cairbre Riada, son of Conaire the second, king of Ire- 
land, gave his name to the four lower baronies of the county 
of Antrim, commonly called the R.oute. A colony under 
the command of this prince, emigrated to Argyleshire in 
Scotland, and settled in a Dal, or district, which still re- 
tains his name. 

" Duce Reuda de Hibernia progressi, vel amicitia, vel fer- 
ro, sibimet inter eos sedes, quas hactenus habent, vendica- 



108 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

runt : a quo videlicet duce, usque hodie, Dalreudini voean» 
tur : nam lingua eorum Dal partem significat. Bed. lib. I. 
C. 1. 

Dalriada is the appellation adopted in the poem for tht 
county of Antrim in general. 

Note IV. p. 10. 
Thus Death and S/«, Iffc. 
Deep to the roots of hell the gathered beach 
They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on 
Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge 
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall 
Immoveable of this now fenceless world, 
Forfeit to death, from hence a passage broad, 
Smooth, easy, inoffensive down to hell. 

Paradise Lost, Book 10. 
Note V. p. 11. 
When Jirst to Staffas cavertted shores they came. 
Fingal's cave in./ the island of Staffa has been described 
with such accuracy and taste by Sir Joseph Banks, that 
any attempt at farther description would be perilous to the 
writer, and to the reader superfluous. He has, however, 
omitted one remarkable circumstance, which is its musical 
echo... a circumstance the more curious, as it probably gave a 
name to the cave, Uagh na bh'ine^ signifying the musical grotto,* 
being corrupted into IJagh na i7«, to favou.f Macpherson's 
imposture. 

Mr. Pennant has fallen into a strange error, and incorrect- 
ness of expression j when he says, in his reference to Sir J. 
Banks' description, that Staffa is a genuine mass of basaltes, 
or Giants' Causeway, but itt most respects superior to the Irish 
in grandeur. Had he contented himself with saying that 
Fingal's cave excels in regularity of structure, any cave on 
the coast of Antrim, he might have obtained credit. But 
to assert that the grandeur of Staffa will bear any compa- 
rison with the scenery of the Giants' Causeway and its neigh-? 



* See the scientific geography of Pinkerton, 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 109 

bourhood, is so extravagant, that any one who repeats it, 
may be fairly suspected of having never made both places 
the objects of contemplation. The whole extent of Staffa is 
scarcely a mile in length, and not half that space in breadth, 
and its greatest elevation does not exceed 128 feet. What 
is this compared to the grand range of promontories from 
Port Noffer to Bengore ; an undulating line of coast, extend- 
ing upwards of three miles, and rising in some places, as at 
Pleaskin, to an elevation of nearly 400 feet, presenting, in 
a continued series of semicircular bays, in its gigantic col- 
onnades, and the fantastic variety of its rocks, the most magni- 
ficent and unparalleled scenery? 

If, in the grand features of sublimity, Staffa sinks below 
comparison with the Antrim coast, it is also greatly inferior 
t>oth in variety and beauty. It has been justly observed by 
Hamilton that "the best specimens of pillars at Staffa, are 
not comparable to those of the Giants' Causeway, in neatness 
of form, or singularity of articulation." 

Note VI. p. IS. 
Three days thrice told on Odin loud they call. 
u Every ninth month the Scandinavians repeated a detesta- 
ble ceremony of human sacrifices, which lasted nine days, 
on each of which they immolated nine of their fellow-crea- 
tures. The altars of these tragedies were composed of large 
stones, which neither the ravages of time, nor the zeal of 
the first converts to Christianity, have been altogether able 
to destroy. Stonehenge was probably one of them. For the 
Britons, as well as all the Celts, Italians, Carthaginians, Phoe- 
nicians, and in short, all the nations we read of in Europe 
and Asia, lie under the opprobrium of the same abominable and 
bloody practice." 

The machinery of the Scandinavian mythology, here em- 
ployed, is justified by the supposition that the Danes intro- 
duced their religious rites into Ireland and the Hebrides. 
The Cromlechs and large circles of stones and earth so fre- 
quent in Ireland, are supposed by many to be the remains 
of the Scandinavian superstition, Macphergoa yrz\ aware of 



1 10 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

this, when he introduced the spirit of Loda, the same as O- 
din, into the poem of Carrick Thura, and brought him int» 
conflict with the hero of his fictions. 

« c The Edda, or religious code of the Scandinavians, reckons 
up twelve gods and as many goddesses. Odin, the chief, is 
characterized by the titles of Father of the slain, and the Lord 
of graves. Thor, the most valiant of his sons, is represent- 
ed as armed with a mace, which he grasps invincibly with 
gauntlets of iron. The giants, against whom the Gods wa- 
ged frequent war, are denominated " sons of Frost." Loke 
is the principle of evil, and Heia, of death. Loke, in his 
wars with the gods, was discomfited. He was seized, and 
shut up in a cavern, where he rages with such violence, that 
he is the cause of all our earthquakes. In Valhalla, the par- 
adise of the brave, the souls of those who fell in battle, quaf- 
fed beer and mead from the skulls of their slain foes. The 
Gods had made a bridge between heaven and earth ; this 
bridge is the rain-bow. To prevent the giants from ascend- 
ing by it into heaven, it was constantly guarded by the porter, 
Heimdal, whom it was impossible to surprise ; for the Gods 
had given him the faculty of sleeping more lightly than a 
bird, and of discovering objects by day or night, further than 
the distance of a hundred leagues. He had also an ear so 
fine, that he could hear the very grass grow in the mead- 
ows, and the wool on the backs of the sheep. The sister 
fates, or Valkyriur, were servants of Odin. Their name sig- 
nifies Chusers of the slain. They were m&unted on swift 
horses, with drawn swords in their hands, and in the throng 
of battle, selected such as were destined to slaughter, and 
conducted them to Valhalla." 

See Sullivan's view of Nature... The Edda... And note to 
Gray's fatal Sisters. 

Note VII. p. 16. 
Genius of 0ssian t &c. 
Irish historians, long before the names of Fingal and Mac- 
pherson were ever heard of, could give an exact account 
and genealogy of our renowned bard. Fin Mac Cumhal was 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. Ill 

not, as Macpherson represents his hero, the king of Mor- 
ven, in Scotland, but general of the Fiona Eirionn, under 
Cormac, grandson of Conn, of the hundred battles. His son 
Oisin, equally distinguished for valour and poetical genius, 
became the chief of the clan na Bbiskine. He headed the 
Fiona Eirionn in a revolt against Carbre-Liffeachair, monarch 
of Ireland. In the disastrous battle of Gabhra, his son Os- 
car fell by the hand of the monarchy who was himself slain. 
Oisin, one of the few who escaped^ it is said, became blind, 
and survived till the arrival of St. Patrick, with whom he 
held frequent conversations respecting Christianity. But no 
credit is to be given to a supposition, founded only on some 
monkish legends, which would make the years of the hoary 
bard double the three generations of Nestor. There is not 
a single poem extant, which can be clearly traced to Oisin. 
" Scotland canont produce any literary monument, written be- 
fore the tenth or eleventh century. Macpherson himself says 
that the monks of the abbey of Hy, founded by an Irishman, 
in the sixth century, were the only persons within the ter- 
ritories of the Scots, who could record events, of course 
these poems must have been preserved, if preserved they 
were, from the third to the sixth century, by oral tradi- 
tion." Credat Judaius Apella.- Campbell's Strictures 

on the Literary and Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. 

The reasonings of Dr. Johnson on this subject, might 
have been deemed conclusive. Every succeeding investigation 
serves to corroborate their truth. The result of Dr. Young's 
inquirv, (and who has been a more candid inquirer than Dr„ 
Young) is well known, and the question concerning the for- 
gery of Macpherson's Centos, notwithstanding the late at- 
tempts to impose certain translations from the English Ossian 
into Erse, as originals, on the Gaelic society in Edinburgh, h 
for ever decided. 

See a most excellent dissertation on this subject by Mr. 
Laing, annexed to his history of Scotland. 



112 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

Note VIII. p. 17. 
S$es their light Corraghs ride the northern foam. 

The corragh is a small boat composed of wattles, and 
covered with hides. These boats are still employed on the 
western shores of Ireland. Vallancey remarks that they were 
in use from the Western ocean to the Nile. See Lucan'* 
Pharsalia, book IV. line 131. Primum cana salix ; thus trans- 
lated by RoWe : 

The bending willow into barks they twirte, 
Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine ; 
Such are the floats Venetian fishers know, 
Where, in dull marshes stands the settling Po ; 
On such, to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain, 
The bolder Britons cross the swelling main. 

Note IX. p. 18. 

....Deirdre's fatal charms, 

jfeoused all the valour of the isle to arms, 

Deirdre, the Helen of Irish History, was the daughter of 
Feidlin, son of the prime minister of Concovar, king of Uls- 
ter. A Druid had prophesied at her birth, that she should 
prove the cause of innumerable calamities to her country. 
To frustrate this prediction, Concovar confined her like a 
second Danae, in a strong tower. She grew in years and 
beauty, and having, one snowy day, espied a raven feeding 
on the blood of a calf, she wished to have a lover, whose 
skin might emulate the whiteness of snow, his hair the glos- 
sy hue of the raven's wing, and his cheek the bloom of the 
crimson gore. Naois, one of the sons of Usnach, whose 
person corresponded to this description, was informed of Deir- 
dre's wish by her governess, and introduced into the for- 
tress. At the instigation of his fair mistress, Naois prevail- 
ed on his two brothers, Ainle and Ardan, to assist him in 
forcing the tower, and deliver her from captivity. The de- 
sign succeeded, and Naois fled to Albin or Scotland, with 
his prize, accompanied by his brothers. The nobles of Uls- 
ter, regretting the exile of the sons of Usnach, whom they 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 1 13 

held in high estimation, made a successful application to Con- 
covar, to allow them to return to their native country. But 
the treacherous king, though he had given two hostages for 
their security, put them to the sword, and had Deirdre car- 
ried to his court. The two hostages, Feargus and Conloin- 
gios, justly exasperated at the perfidy of Concovar, levied 
troops, and took a desperate and bloody revenge. Deirdre 
remaining inconsolable for her beloved Naois, Concovar de- 
termined that she should become the wife of the officer who 
had slain her husband. But from this new calamity she 
escaped by a lucky spring fom her chariot, by which she 
terminated at once her sufferings and her life. 

The author is informed that there is a cave on the Coast 
of Cantire, called Deirdre's cave ; and a stone erected in a 
field near Lisanoor, in the county of Antrim, is said to mark 
the grave of the Clan na Uisneach. On the summit of Knock- 
laid stands a cairn, called cam an truir, or the cairn of the 
three, but of what three, tradition does not record. The 
rock named Craig an Uisneach, at Bemnore, points out the 
place where Uisneach was drowned. 

Note X. p. 18. 
Or great Tiroxven, on the Saxon horde, 
Proved the keen temper of Ultonias sivord. 
The following character of Hugh O'Nial, the famous 
earl of Tyrone, is abridged from a note in Campbell's 
Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ire- 
land. 

" This extraordinary man was an illegitimate branch of that 
royal stock, which had supplied the throne of Ireland with 
many monarchs. He was bred up under the best masters in 
England, and received with favour at the court of Elizabeth. 
Having obtained a command of men in Ireland • he took care 
to instruct them in the art of war, and without appearing to 
encrease the number of his troops, he was always dismissing, 
and attaching to his person, the old soldiers whom he had 
formed, and gathering recruits to learn the tactical exercise. 
As the house of O'Nial had always proved refractory to Eng- 
Q. 



1 14 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

lish government, the queen thought it good policy to invest 
Hugh with the earldom of Tyrone, as a counterpoise to the 
influence of the legitimate blood. The horizon of O'Nial's 
ambition now began to widen ; he looked down upon his 
new dignity, and, like others of his family, was heard to 
declare, that he would rather be O'Nial of Ulster, than king 
of Spain, then the most potent monarch of Europe. Before he 
ventured to strike a blow, he imported vast quantities of lead, 
under the pretext of roofing his castle of Dungannon, which 
he melted into bullets. At length, when his mine was ready 
for explosion, he attacked Marshal Bagnal, at the head of a 
numerous army, and after slaying the marshal with his own 
hand, he laid sixteen hundred English dead in the passes of 
Tyrone. 

He now threw off the mask, set up the standard of inde- 
pendence, disclaimed the dignity of earl, and, as if his illegiti- 
macy had been cancelled, he was acknowledged by his kin- 
dred, as the head of their sept, and hailed by the darling title 
of O'Nial. 

He found his country distracted and dispirited. Depression 
from within, and oppression from without, had spread uni- 
versal disunion and distrust. He attached his friends; he gain- 
ed his enemies ; he infused his own enterprising spirit into all 

around him; he united all Ireland into one great cause 

After we consider all this, and associate it with the backward 
condition of his country, who can deny him the praise of 
a great man ? That historian will give the justest portrait of 
his character, who draws him as he was, a compound of vir- 
tue and vice in the extreme. If his versatility did sometimes 
degenerate into duplicity, let candour consider the feeble in- 
struments he had to work with, and the powers he had to 
cope withal, led by the greatest generals of the time, Norris, 
Essex, and Mountjoy. Above all, let it be observed that fi- 
nesse was not all on his side, for it is not the attribute 
of a rude people ; and it should never be forgotten that Ire- 
land was at all times more sinned against than sinning." 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 1 ] 3 

Note XI. p. 18. 
Or Sourlebuoy, from lonely glen or hill., 
Poured through the martial pipe his pibroch shrill. 

Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the Mac 
Donnells, from Argyleshire, established themselves in the 
north of Ireland. Alexander Mac Donnell, for his services 
against the Scots, was presented by the earl of Sussex with 
a gold sword, and silver gilt spurs ; and had the monas- 
tery of Glenarm, and the lands belonging thereto, granted 
him.* He also laid claim to the estates of the Mac Quil- 
lans, and had his claims ratified by James the first. The 
numerous quarrels which ensued between the Mac Quillans 
and Mac Donnells, were finally decided at the battle of 
Aura. 

Sourlebuoy, i. e. Samuel the swarthy, son of Alexander 
Mac Donnell, and a daughter of Mac Cane, was seated 
at Dunluce, and during the rebellion of Shane O'Neil, was 
taken prisoner, and confined by him, until enlarged, in or- 
der to procure the assistance of his brother Alexander, and 
the Scots under his command, to withstand the lord depu- 
ty Sidney. The Scots went to O 'Neil's camp, on pretence 
of assisting him, but in revenge of former injuries, hewed him 
and his followers to pieces. A. D. 1567. 

July 4, 1569, Sourlebuoy being encamped at Margy, near 
Ballycastle, with some well-armed Highlanders, was attack- 
ed by Edward Mac Ouillan, whom he repulsed, and obliged 
to retreat, with the loss of one of his brothers, and a number 
of men. Sourlebuoy now became the assailant, and in a se- 
cond battle, fought at the head of Glenshesk, slew another 
of the Mac Quillans, and forced their army to retreat to- 
wards Aura. Here they were joined by Charles O'Neil of 
Claneboy, and Hugh Mac Phelemy Roe O'Neil, from Ty- 
rone, who, being esteemed an able general, was entrusted 
with the command of the forces. Sourlebuoy being also re- 
inforced, determined on a battle, and marching to the war- 

* Lodge's peerage. 



116 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

like music of four Highland pipes, commenced the attack. But 
he was worsted in this engagement, and had to. lament the fall 
of three of his bravest officers. 

O'Neil had expected a considerable number of men to join 
his standard, and had they arrived, he might have obtained a 
decisive victory. But two of his servants, one of them a High- 
land piper, named O'Kain, whom he had charged with miscon- 
duct, deserted to the enemy, and represented the advantages 
of attacking O'Neil, before his succours approached. O'Kain 
proposed to go in the character of a messenger from O 'Neil's 
camp, to inform the commander of the expected reinforce- 
ment, that his services were not required, as Sourlebuoy had 
been already defeated. The wary chieftain approved this 
advice, and laid a stratagem for the defeat of his enemy, 
which was attended with complete success. He collected a 
number of women on Drimidder, a mountainous ridge in view 
of O'Neil's men, or, as is more probable, he arrayed some 
of his men in female attire, either to irritate O'Neil by an 
expression of contempt, or to inspire the idea that his men 
were in a state of disorder, and might be easily subdued. 
O'Neil was heard to boast that he would soon go and dis- 
perse the f-.nale camp. This happened on the day previous to 
the battle. During the night, Sourlebuoy employed his men 
in digging up rushes, which he laid carefully across a bog, near 
the intended scene of action, forming a narrow path, over 
which a line of infantry might pass securely, and so artificially 
constructed, that the enemy might mistake them for the natu- 
ral produce of the soil. 

On the morning of July 13, 1569, Sourlebuoy being join- 
ed by a number of allies, under the command of Hugh Mac 
Aulay, from the Glynns, sent out a detachment of his men, 
with two officers, and as many Highland pipers, to provoke 
the enemy to action. He had, at the same time, appointed a 
number of men, women, and boys, armed with long poles, 
under flying colours, to appear at a distance advancing in form 
of a military reinforcement. O'Neil determined to commence 
the attack, before this supposed reinforcement could join Sour- 
lebuoy. In the confidence of victory he said " the Highland* 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 1 17 

ers will not be a breakfast for us." One Mac Illmoyle in his 
camp replied, " Take care they don't be your supper." " That 
they will not," said O'Neil, " even with your assistance, you 
Buddaugh, and you may go over to them if you will." This 
insult cost him Ins life ; for, according to the observation of 
Plutarch, the generality of men, are more apt to resent a con- 
temptuous word, than an unjust action. Mac Illmoyle desert- 
ed during the conflict, and cut down O'Neil in the retreat. 
Sourlebuoy's men being near the bottom of the hill, their fire 
did great execution, while that of his enemy being ill-directed 
from above, had but little effect. O'Neil seeing his men fall, 
commanded the cavalry to charge. Sourlebuoy did not sus- 
tain the attack, but retreated over the bog by the rush path 
which he had previously constructed. The horsemen rashly 
pursued, and being engulfed, and tied to their saddles, accord- 
ing to the custom of the age, were quickly dispatched. O'Neil, 
accompanied by a faithful servant, fled, but they were overta- 
ken and slain. The cairns of both are still to be seen, where 
they fell, on great Aura. After this victory, Sourlebuoy was 
invited, with all liis men, by the Mac Aulays of the Glynns, to 
dine on the S. E. side of Trostan. They feasted four days, 
and erected a cairn, which is still known by the name of Cas- 
Jin Sourlebuoy. 

After the defeat, Mac Ouillan's men were entirely disper- 
sed, and he himself sought refuge in an island of Lough-linch. 
Coll Doenagapple, and Owen Gar Magee, two of Sourlebuoy's 
cousins, cast lots, to decide who of them should swim to 
the island, and attack him, as no boat could be procured. 
The lot fell on Magee, and he swam to the island, carrying his 
sword in his teeth ; and after a well-contested battle, cut off 
Mac Quiilan's head, and thus terminated the wars of these 
two rival clans. 

Charles O'Neil was slain by a Highlander whom he insulted, 
and buried under a cairn, known by the name of Cruik na Dhu- 
ine, near Cushendun. 

Old Edward Mac Quillan, having lost his estates, and his 
three sons became blind with grief. But in the course of a 
year, having recovered the sight of ©ne eye, he went to Lon- 



118 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

tdon, and made a representation of his misfortunes to, the 
king, and received, in recompence of his lost territory, a grant 
of the barony of Innishowen, which he foolishly exchanged 
with Sir John Chichester, for a small estate in the neighbour- 
hood of Ballymena. Frugality never formed the characteristic 
of an Irish chief. R. Oge Mac Quillan sold his estate to one of 
the Chichesters ; the money was soon spent, and the family of 
the Mac Quillans extinguished.* 

In 1573, Sourlebuoy was made a free denizen of Ireland, 
and sworn to be a true subject. But he seems to have al- 
ways felt uneasy under the British yoke. The following an- 
ecdote, preserved by tradition, will illustrate the character 
of this haughty and high-spirited chieftain. When the let- 
ters patent from England, confirming his title to his estates, 
arrived at Dunluce, he ordered a large fire to be kindled, 
and drawing his sword, cut the parchment in pieces, and 
flung it into the flames, declaring, "that the lands which he 
had won by the sword, should never be held by a sheep- 
skin." In 1575, he assaulted the garrison of Carrickfergus, 
slew captain Baker with his lieutenant, forty soldiers, and 
some inhabitants ; and though forced to retire, and come to 
terms of submission, we find him again in arms, in 1584, 
assisted by a numerous body of auxiliaries from the isles, 
and determined to hold the Route and the Glynns by force. 
During the prosecution of the war, now levied against the 
English, the following singular contest took place between 
Alexander, the son of Sourlebuoy, and Captain Merry- 
man. 

* s Alexander being a daring young fellow, and a good 
swordsman, showed himself at the head of his men, and cal- 
led for Merryman to answer him in single combat ; which 
a Gallinglasse (standing on the outside of the English, say- 
ing he was the man,) accepted. They encounter, and A- 
lexander's target being at the first biowe by the Gallinglasse 
axe beaten to his head, was astonished j but soon recouer-. 



•Hamilton*, 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 119 

ing himselfe, got within the other, and with his sword, 
cleft his head, so as he left him for dead, which Merryman 
seeing, who was not far off, met Alexander, so as with 
sword and target they held for a fewe blows and a good 
iight ; but Alexander being sore hurt by the Captaine on 
the legge, withdrew, and got himself out of the field, to ease 
and dresse his wound.*" 

Merryman had little honour in a victory which he stele 
by wounding in the leg, contrary to the law of arms, an 
antagonist weakened by a previous conflict. After the re- 
treat of his men, Alexander endeavoured to conceal him- 
self under a covering of turf and hurdles. But being found 
out, his head was struck off, and set upon a pole, at the 
castle of Dublin. Sourlebuoy having gone thither to treat 
with the deputy, was desired by one of the courtiers to 
behold the ghastly visage of his son. To this ruthless and in- 
sulting speech, the chief replied with just indignation and 
unbroken spirit, " my son hath many heads." But whatever 
projects he might still plan for the support of his indepen- 
dence, he was finally obliged to submit. Sir John Perrot 
having taken his castle of Dunluce, with all his islands and 
loughs, prevailed on him to sue for protection, and he 
was accordingly restored to her Majesty's favour.f He 
died 1589. 

Some of the principal facts recorded in this note, are extrac- 
ted from two well authenticated manuscripts obligingly com- 
municated by Dr. Mc DonnelL 

Note XII. p. IS. 
Noiv to the heughs of black polluted shade, 
He sees the fere e Monro ivith gory blade. 
The heughs, commonly known bv the name of the Gobbin 
heugh, from Cob, the mouth, ben a promontory, and keugh a 



* Government of Ireland, under Sir John Perrot. Edit. 
London. 1626. 



f Lodge's peerage. 



120 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

craggy declivity, are a long ridge of prependicular rock, about 
203 feet high, forming the N. E. boundary of the peninsula 
of Magee. There are two castles in this peninsula, castle Chi- 
chester, near the isthmus, and the other, now a ruin, op* 
posite Port Muck. There are also several cromlechs, or dru- 
idical altars ; and at the E. Side of Brown's bay, a large stone 
called the Giant's cradle, so nicely balanced, that a small force 
will put it into motion, though the utmost strength of many 
men could not overturn it. In times of remote antiquity, this 
stone might have been employed as a proper instrument to im- 
pose on the credulity of an ignorant and superstitious people. 

"It was usual with the Egyptians," according to Mr. Bryant, 
" with much labour to place one vast stone upon another, for 
a religious memorial ; the stones thus placed, they poised of- 
tentimes so equally, that they were affected with the least 
external force, nay, a breath of wind would sometimes make 
them vibrate." 

The story alluded to in the poem, by poetical licence, and 
in conformity to vulgar tradition, is, that a number of Ro- 
man Catholics, in the rebellion of 1641, were precipitated 
over the Gobbins. Monro, the commander of some Scotch 
puritans in the garrison of Carrickfergus, is said to have been 
the perpetrator of this atrocity, and the cliffs are still shown to 
the eye of fancy, distained with the blood of the unhappy vic- 
tims. Some of our late historians have alledged that not fewer 
than 3000 persons suffered in that disgraceful transaction. It 
is, however, with pleasure, that the author finds it in his 
power to expose an exaggeration so extravagant. It appears 
from a minute and faithful examination of the depositions lod- 
ged in Trinity College, by the very relations of those who 
suffered, that not more than thirty persons, (not thirty fa- 
milies, as Dr. Leland supposes,) were put to death, and not by 
precipitation over the Gobbins, but in their own houses. The 
cause assigned for an atrocity sufficiently enormous, without the 
aid of exaggeration, was revenge for some outrages committed 
against the protestants in a neighbouring district. This shock- 
ing transaction took place in January 1642; the rebellion com- 
menced October 1641. But notwithstanding, it has been late- 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 121 

ly asserted in Plowden's History, and Clarendon quoted as au- 
thority, that it preceded the rebellion. Clarendon asserts the 
very reverse. "The rebellion," says he, "broke out, without so 
much as the least pretence of a quarrel, or hostility as much as 
apprehended by the protestants." 

Party spirit, fear, hatred, and other passions always aggra- 
vate. The crimes committed both by protestants and catho- 
lics during the rebellion of 1641, have been delineated in col- 
burs the most odious, and shapes the most disgusting. Even 
the philosophical historian, Hume, has suffered himself to be- 
come the dupe of imposition, in adopting as facts the state- 
ments of prejudice and misrepresentation j and on no occasion 
is he more eloquent than in his highly coloured and erroneous 
description of the rebellion of 1641. That many atroci- 
ties were committed by both parties, though not a fourth 
part of the number alledged, is unhappily too true. But 
it would be wise to give way to the natural effect of time, in 
drawing a veil over them, and adopt a mutual spirit of conci* 
liation. 

Note 3tlII. p. 19, 
Hail, patriot Walker hail ! 

" Mr. George Walker, so justly famous for his defence of 
Derry, (when Lundey, the governor, would have surrendered 
it to King James,) was born of English parents, in the county 
of Tyrone, and educated in the university of Glasgow ; he was 
afterwards rector of Donoughmore, not many miles from the 
city of Londonderry. Upon the revolution, he raised a regi- 
ment for the defence of the protestants ; and upon intelligence 
of King James having a design to besiege Londonderry, retired 
thither, being at last chosen governor of it. After the raising 
of that siege, he came to England, where he was most graci- 
ously received by their Majesties, and on the 19th November, 
1689, received the thanks of the house of commons, having 
just before published an account of that siege, and had a 
present of =£5000. He was created D. D. by the university of 
Oxford, on 26th February, 1690, on his return to Ireland, 
where he was killed the beginning of July, at the passage of 



122 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

the Boyne, having resolved to serve that campaign, before he 
took possessson of his Bishoprick. Birch. 

" The flesh of horses, dogs, and vermin, hides, tallow and 
other nauseous substances, were purchased at extravagant pri- 
ces, and eagerly devoured. Even such miserable resource* 
began to fail, and no means of sustenance could be found 
for more than two days. Still the languid and ghastly crouds 
listened to the exhortations of Walker ; still he assured them 
from the pulpit that the Almighty would grant them a deliver- 
ance. While their minds were yet warm with this harangue, 
delivered with all the earnestness of a man inspired, they dis- 
covered three ships in the lough, making way to the town. On 
these interesting objects, both the garrison and the besiegers 
fixed their eyes in all the eagerness of suspense and expec- 
tation. The enemies, from their battery, from their muske- 
try, thundered furiously on these ships, which returned their 
fire with spirit. The foremost of the victuallers struck rap- 
idly against the boom,* and broke it, but, rebounding with 
violence, ran aground. The enemy burst instantly into shouts 
of joy, and prepared to board her; on the crouded walls, 
the garrison stood stupified by despair. The vessel fired her 
guns, was extricated by the shock, and floated. She passed 
the boom, and was followed by her companions. The town 
was relieved, and the enemy retired." 

Leland. 

Note XIV. p. 19. 

They poured their radiance on Iernes plains. 

That learning flourished in Ireland, when the rest of Eu- 
rope was immersed in ignorance and barbarity, is a truth 
supported by indubitable authority. " The testimony of Bede 



* " To prevent supplies by water, the enemy had stretch- 
ed from two opposite forts, a boom across the Foyle, formed 
of strong timber, joined by iron chains, and strengthened by 
thick cables.'* 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 123 

Is unquestionable, that about the middle of the seventh cen* 
tury, in the days of the venerable prelaies, Finian and Cole- 
man, many nobles, and other orders of the Anglo-Saxons, re- 
tired from their own country into Ireland, either for instruc- 
tion, or for an opportunity of living in monasteries of strict- 
er discipline, and that the Scots, as he stiles the Irish, main- 
tained them, taught them, and furnished them with books, 
without fee or reward." " A most honourable testimony," says 
.Lord Lyttleton, " not only to the learning, but likewise to the 
bounty and hospitality of that nation. A conflux of foreign- 
ers to a retired island, at a time when Europe was in igno- 
rance and confusion, gave peculiar lustre to that seat of learn- 
ing ; nor is it improbable or surprising, that seven thousand 
students studied at Armagh, agreeably to the accounts of 
Irish writers, though the seminary of Armagh was but one 
of the numerous colleges erected in Ireland." 

" But the labours of the Irish clergy were not confined 
to their own country. Their missionaries were sent to the 
continent. They converted heathens ; they confirmed believ- 
ers; they erected convents; they established schools of learn- 
ing ; they taught the use of letters to the Saxons and Nor- 
mans; they converted the Picts by the preaching of Col- 
umkill, one of their renowned ecclesiastics. Burgundy, Ger- 
many, and other countries received their instructions, and 
Europe confessed the superior knowledge, the piety, the zeal, 
the purity of the Island of Saints." 

Note XV. p. 20. 
Yet iv'tth regret let memory fond retrace 
The long-lost honours of the tuneful race. 
Keating informs us that the Milesians brought into Ireland 
a musician and a poet, both eminent in their respective arts, 
Each of the Milesian leaders, Heber and Heremon, was anxi- 
ous to retain them in his train, and they agreed to decide 
their claims by lot. The musician fell to Heber, and the poet 
to Heremon. The former communicated a taste for music to 
the Southern, and the latter a love of poetry to the northern 



124 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

* 

part of the island, a distinction which, some contend, remains 
till this day. 

The Bards were invested with peculiar privileges, and held 
in the highest estimation by the kings and nobles of Ireland. 
They were freed from all taxes and contributions; their 
houses were esteemed sanctuaries, and their persons sacred ; 
lands and revenues were conferred on them ; and in addition 
to their stated salary, they received a liberal reward for each 
of their poetical compositions. Cairbre Muse, a poet in the 
reign of Oilliol Olum, was rewarded with a present of the two 
districts of Ormond for an ingenious panegyric on his prince. 
This was the golden age of the Irish Bards. 

Similar honours were conferred on their poets by all the 
Northern nations. The Scalds of Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden, were held in the highest estimation both by their 
princes and the people. " Harald Harfagar placed them a- 
boveall the officers of his court. Many princes entrusted them, 
both in peace and war, with commissions of the utmost im- 
portance. They were rewarded with magnificent presents, 
golden rings, glittering arms, and rich apparel. In a word, the 
poetic art was held in such estimation, that great lords, and 
even kings, did not disdain to cultivate it with the utmost pains 
themselves.*" 

The honours and. immunities of the Irish Bards having ad- 
ded greatly to their numbers, they became a burden to the 
people obliged to support them. Every poet of the first rank 
had thirty of inferior note as his attendants ; and every one of 
secondary rank fifteen. The influence of the crown had to be 
repeatedly exercised to repress their insolence, and four times 
they were in danger of being banished, or put to death. Un- 
der Connor Macneasa, king of Ulster, the people had formed 
a determination to banish them, but by the interference of the 
king, they were allowed seven years of probation. During 
that time they rendered themselves less obnoxious to the 
people, and the persecution ceased. The princes of Ulster 



Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 125 

were always their avowed patrons and advocates. Fiachad, 
the dynast of that province, saved them from a second perse- 
cution, and kindly entertained them for a whole year. A 
third time they were saved from banishment by Maolchabha 
another prince of Ulster. 

Untaught by experience, they became in the reign of Aodh, 
or Hugh, A. D. 558, a greater grievance to the people than be- 
fore, and indulged their insolence to such a pitch that they de- 
manded the golden bodkin, which fastened the royal robes, a 
jewel of singular virtue, and of hereditary right inalienable 
from the king. This demand provoked the monarch, and 
he summoned a council of his nobles to Dromceat, to pass 
a law for their suppression. The timely intercession of Collum- 
Kill mollified the king, and it was agreed that the college of the 
poets should be reformed, not suppressed, and that the king, 
and every provincial prince, and lord of a Cantred should retain 
one poet, to record the exploits and genealogy of his family. 
The Bard had to attend his patron to the field of battle, and 
his harp was not less necessary to animate the spirit of the con- 
flict, than the rude music of the bag-pipe in more modern times. 
«* The ode composed for the occasion was called Rosg Catha, 
the eye of battle. Numbers of these odes are yet preserved. 
Many are beautiful, animating, and seem evidently by their 
measure to have been sef to martial music.*" 

The Bards also sang the Caoine or funeral dirge of slain 
warriors, and at the grand feast of Samhuin, or the moon, re- 
cited sacred odes, as, it is probable, they did also at the grand 
festivals of Beal Tinne, and Lugnasa, when fires were kindled, 
and sacrifices ©ffered on every hill throughout the island, to 
Beal or the Sun, the grand object of national worship. By 
their strains they regulated the movements of the Riiikey or 
martial dance, and perhaps bore a distinguished part in the sa- 
cred dance, in which, according to some of our antiquaries, the 
Druids " observed the revolutions of the year, by dancing a- 
bout our round towers." 



O'Halloran. 



126 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

Spenser has given his testimony in favour of the poetical 
merits of the Bards' compositions ; and though he could see 
them only through the cold medium of translation, he acknow- 
ledges " that they savoured of sweet wit, and good invention, 
and were sprinkled with some pretty flowres of their naturalL 
device which gave good grace and comlinesse unto them." At 
the same time he laments, and it is to be feared too justly, that 
they prostituted their powers of song to the service of vice. 
Instead of uniting in their own persons, as their predecessors 
had done, the character of historian, judge, poet, philosopher, 
and the instructor of youth, they made the licentious and 
lawless the objects of their panegyric, and so far from in- 
structing "young men in moral discipline, they themselves 
did more deserve to bee sharply disciplined." Like the Bards 
of Wales, they took a decided part in opposing the English 
power, and by their animated strains in which they dwelt on 
the exploits of their ancestors, and the sweets of liberty, the 
ruin of their country, and the rapacity of her invaders, foment- 
ed a spirit of rebellion which could be allayed, only by the ex- 
tinction of their order. To effect this, several rigorous laws 
were enacted against them, in the reigns of Edward III. Henry 
VIII. and Elizabeth. They were obliged to seek the protection, 
of solitude and concealment. Surrounded by the wild scenery 
of their rocks and mountains, they poured out their expiring 
notes with exquisite and inimitable pathos. Their numbers 
gradually diminished; and their profession, yielding to the 
progress of civilization and refinement, at length became ex- 
tinct. 

Note XVI. p. 22. 

The holy circuit of the round tower led. 

There are three round towers in the county of Antrim,, 
including Ram's-island, one of which, stands on that Island, 
a second within half a mile of Antrim, and a third at Ar- 
moy. These singular structures, according to some of our Irish 
antiquaries were erected by the Ostmen, as belfries, and this 
opinion is ably supported by Dr. Ledwich : others fancy,, 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 12? 

for the idea is without foundation, that they are monuments 
of Ascetic superstition, like that erected by Simon Stylites; 
and a third class, headed by .General Vallancey, that they 
are the same as the Persian Pyratheia, or Phoenician deposi- 
tories of the sacred fire. That they were designed for some 
religious purpose, then, is generally agreed ; and the opinion 
that they are of Eastern origin, may also seem probable, by 
the following extract form Lord Valentia's travel s» 

" I was much pleased with the sight of two very singu- 
lar round towers about a mile N. W. of the town of Bhaugul- 
pore. They much resemble those buildings in Ireland which 
have hitherto puzzled the antiquaries of the sister kingdom, 
except that they are more ornamented. It is singular that 
there is no tradition concerning them, nor are they held in any 
respect by the Hindoos of the country. The Rajah of Iyenag- 
ur considers them as holy, and has erected a small building to 
shelter the great number of his subjects who annually come to 
worship here." 

The round tower of Antrim has been accurately described 
in the Belfast Magazine for June, 1809, p. 424. "This tower is 
perfectly round, both internally and externally, and is but little 
impaired by time ; it is SO feet high, and tapers about 1 8 feet 
from the top, in form of a sugar loaf; it is 52 feet in girth 
near the base, and seemingly about 36 near the top, before it 
begins to taper. At the ground are two circles of stones, pro - 
jecting about eight inches each : nine feet above these stones is 
a small door facing the north, there are no steps up to the door, 
nor any appearance of its ever having had such. There are 
three tiers of loop holes for the admission of air and light ; 
those near the top are round, and correspond to the four car- 
dinal points; within are places in the wall for resting beams, 
evidently for the purpose of making the tower into stories. 
The masonry is good, and the wall upwards of three feet thick; 
the loop holes and doors are arched with hewn stone." 

Note XVII. p. 20. 
To urge them furious on the robber Dane. 
The Danes made their first appearance in a formidable body 
*>n the coast of Ireland, in the reign of Aodh or Hugh of the 



128 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST, 

posterity of Heremon A. D. 820, and for more than 200 yea*s 
spread terror and devastation through every part of the island. 
The moet successful and cruel of these ravagers was Turgesius, 
a robber of the royal line of Denmark. He usurped supreme 
power, and for the space of 1 3 years exercised the most unpa- 
ralleled cruelty. He was at length surprised and put to death 
by the king of Meath, for whose daughter he indulged a crimi- 
nal passion. The king of Meath, on pretence of saving his 
daughter from the shame of public prostitution, begged Turge- 
sius to desist from his importunities for only one night, and 
that he would send his daughter, with a suitable retinue of fif- 
teen of the fairest virgins in Meath, to his palace the night fol- 
lowing. In the mean time, he selected fifteen beardless youths 
of high spirit and resolution, and, having arrayed them in fe- 
male attire, with a sharp dagger under the vest of each, sent 
them in place of the fifteen virgins to the palace of Turgesius. 
They were kindly welcomed by the Danish nobles who had 
been invited to share their favours. But the youths requited 
their kindness in a manner very unexpected ; for when Turge- 
sius laid hold of the princess of Meath, they instantly drew 
their daggers, and buried them in the hearts of the Danes. 
Turgesius according to a previous plan, was bound, and 
brought before the king of Meath ; who deeming him un- 
worthy of the death of a warrior, ordered him to be thrown 
into Loch Ainnin, where he perished. 

But the destruction of this tyrant, and his barbarian accom- 
plices, did not free Ireland from the predatory excursions of 
the Northern Rovers. They continued to sweep the coast 
with all the desolation of fire and sword, and the island of saints 
changed its character for that of a land of blood-shed and de- 
vastation. At length the Danes in a decisive battle fought in 
the field of Clontarf, near Dublin, on good friday, April 23, 
1034, were defeated by Brian Boiromhe, with so great a car- 
nage, that they were never afterwards able to oppose the 
Irish arms. 

The character of Brian is depicted by Irish historians in all 
the glowing colours of panegyric. They represent him 3s pos- 
sessed of every virtue public and private, a philosopher and 
poet, a consummate general, and a patriot king. He was as 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 129 

useful to his country as Turgesius had been destructive. He 
rebuilt all the edifices, literary and ecclesiastic, which had felt 
the destroying rage of the enemy; he restored and enforced the 
laws; erected fortifications; made highways throughout the is- 
land ; and inspired his subjects with such reverence for the 
principles of honour and virtue, that, it is said, a young lady of 
surpassing beauty, richly adorned with jewels, and carrying a 
wand withagolden ringon the top of it, passed unmolested from 
the Northern to the Southern extremity of the land. In 49 
battles he had signalized his valour against the Danes, and at 
the advanced age of 88 years he still retained the spirit of a 
warrior and a king. By the persuasion of his son Morrogh he 
had retired from the heat of the battle at Clontarf, to his 
tent, where he was ungenerously slain by one Buadar a Danish 
fugitive to whom he had offered protection. As the hoary 
monarch was stretching out his hand for the battle axe of the 
Dane, in token of submission, he received a blow on the 
head which proved fatal ; but not before he had laid the as- 
sassin dead at his feet. 

Cnutus, Prince of Denmark, his brother Andrew, and 
Maolmordha, the rebel king of Leinster, with 10,000 Danes 
fell in the field of Clontarf. Many nobles of distinction also 
fell on the side of the Irish, particularly Morrogh son of Brian. 
He was treacherously stabbed by the hand of Cnutus whom he 
had stooped to relieve, as he lay, apparently expiring, among 
the dead. 

The following extraordinary description of the battle of 
Clontarf, translated from the Irish language, is said to have been 
written by a spectator, a month after the engagement. "When 
both the powerful armies engaged, and grappled in close fight, 
it was dreadful to behold how their swords glittered over their 
heads, being struck by the rays of the sun, which gave them 
an appearance of a numerous flock of white sea gulls flying in 
the air ; the strokes were so mighty, and the fury of the com- 
batants so terrible, that great quantities of hair torn or cut off 
from their heads by their sharp weapons, was driven far off 
by the wind, and their spears and battle axes were so encum- 
bered with hair, cemented together with clotted blood, that it 



130 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

was scarcely possible to clear, or bring- them to their former 
brightness." Authorities, Keating and M'Curtin. 

Note XVIII. p. 23. 
Here too his sacred lore the Druid taught. 

Numerous monuments of the Druidical superstition, beside 
those mentioned in Island Magee, are still to be seen in the 
County of Antrim. There is a Cromlech at Mount Druid, the 
seat of Doctor Trail, near Ballintoy, a second at Rough-forth 
about six miles from Belfast, and a third on the hill of Brown 
Dodd, in the centre of a circle of stones 18 feet in diameter. 
These monuments correspond, in general, to the description in 
the poem. Sometimes the a] tar has two converging lines of stones, 
gradually diminishing in elevation till they reach the circumfer- 
ence of the stony circle. The length of these lines at Rough- 
forth is 40 feet, the breadth at the base 12, and at the apex 6. 
Four stones about 2^ feet high support a trap rock which forms 
the altar, and 8 other rocks of dimensions gradually lessening 
to the point, cover the two converging lines of upright stones ; 
but the passage underneath is almost filled up with rubbish. 
The circular enclosure of stones has been probably removed 
to make room for the plough. The longitudinal direction is 
E. and W. 

The large circular enclosure of earth known by the name 
of the Giant's ring, on the Eastern side of the Lagan, four 
miles from Belfast, has a Cromlech in the center. The en- 
closure is of such height as to exclude the prospect of every 
thing but the sky. From its situation and extent we may sup- 
pose it to have been a grand seminary, or metropolitan see of 
the Druids. 

" The primitive religion of the Danes proscribed the use 
of temples, and taught that it was offensive to the Gods to pre- 
tend to enclose them within the circuit of walls. We find at 
this day, here and there in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, in 
the middle of a plain, or upon some little hill, altars around 
which they assemble to offer sacrifices, and to assist at other re- 
ligious ceremonies. Three long pieces of rock set upright serve 
for a basis to a great flat stone which forms the table of the al- 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 131 

tar. There is commonly a pretty large cavity under this altar 
which might be intended to receive the blood of the victims, 
and they never fail to find stones for striking fire scattered round 
it, for no other fire but such as was struck forth with a flint 
was pure enough for such a purpose. Sometimes these rural 
altars are constructed in a more magnificent manner, a double 
range of enormous stones surrounds the altar, and the little 
hill on which it is erected." Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 

Note XIX. p. 24. 
Routid Sleimis see ivhat beams of glory play. 
Sleimis, i. e. Sliabh Mios or Muas, signifying, according to 
the fancy of the Etymologist, either the Month Mountain, 
from the monthly sacrifices offered to the moon, or the Altar 
Mountain, from its resemblance to an altar, such as the Irish 
used previous to the introduction of Christianity, is a curious 
mountain, shaped like a truncated cone, near Broughshane, 
under which it is said our great national saint resided 
during his captivity. He was nephew of St. Martin, 
Bishop of Tours in France, and was brought captive with 
his two sisters, Lupida and Darcera, from Armorica 
or Britanny, by Nial of the nine hostages. Being then only* 
1-6 years of age, he soon learned the language of the country, 
and by his excellent talents, and amiable disposition, became 
so endeared to the king and nobility, that he was permitted to 
revisit France. Thence he went to Rome, and for 30 years 
devoted himself to religious study. At length being qualified 
for the labours of an apostle, he was deputed by pope Celes- 
tine to convert Ireland to Christianity. He was accompanied by 
24 or 30 holy men; and, it is recorded, among the other monkish 
fables of Jocelyn, that in his way, he received from an Ancho- 
rite named Justus, a staff of as extraordinory virtue as the wand 
of Moses, and which, Justus declared, he had received from 
the very hand of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the year 432 he 
arrived in Ireland, and, in the short space of three years, tho- 
roughly converted the whole mass of the people. He founded 
355 Monasteries, consecrated an equal number of Eishops, and 
ordained 3000 priests. He assisted in the council of nine ap- 
pointed by Laogaire at Tarah, to examine the public records 
and genealogies. He banished all serpents and other noxious a-? 



132 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

nimals out of the island, in which he resided 6 1 years. At length 
he died at Armagh, and was buried in Downpatrick, where al- 
so rest the bones of St. Brigid, and Columba, agreeable to 
the Leonine distich, 

Hi tres in Duno, tumulo tumulantur in uno, 
Brigida, Patricius, atque Columba pius. 
Usher mentions that the Druids had foretold the arrival of St. 
Patrick. 

Druides, sive Magi Hibernici, adventum B. Patricii ante 
triennium prsedixisse perhibentur. 

Note XX. p. 25. 

Afoul Adulterer boivs at England's throne. 
Dermod, chief of the principality of Leinster, had imbi- 
bed with his mother's milk, a spirit of pride and intole- 
rance, which none of the restrictions of education could bri- 
dle or subdue. While the haughtiness of his deportment dis- 
gusted the nobles, his untractable and ferocious manners 
repelled that admiration which his superior stature and bo- 
dily strength would have excited in the vulgar. He aven- 
ged the hatred or the contempt of his people by his ty- 
ranny, till at length he committed a crime that involved 
the whole of his unfortunate country in misery and deso- 
lation. 

Dervorghal, wife of O'Rourke, the dynast of Breffney, 
had inspired Dermod with a licentious passion, from the 
gratification of which he was deterred by no motive of ho- 
nor or fear. Dervorghal, whose rank was dishonoured, and 
whose personal charms were contaminated by levity and 
inconstancy, listened with pleasure to the proposals of the 
prince of Leinster. While O'Rourke was absent on a pil- 
grimage to the shrine of the national saint, Dermod, with 
a party of horse, surrounded her palace, and according to 
a preconcerted plan seized on the person' of Dervorghal, 
struggling with feigned reluctance, and bore her in triumph 
to his own place of residence. 

O'Rourke, on his return, was enflamed with the utmost 
rage at the perfidy of his wife, and the villainny of her 
seducer. He sought, and obtained the aid of Roderick O'Con- 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 133 

nor, monarch of Ireland, and entered the territories of Der- 
mod with fire and sword. In vain did Dermod call on the 
people and the nobles to rally round his throne. The swords 
that should have been drawn in his defence, were sharp- 
ened against him. Abandoned by all except a few desperate 
adherents, the encouragers and partakers of his crimes, he 
determined to seek the aid of Henry II. of England. In 
the dress of a suppliant and an exile, he appeared before the 
English monarch, and excited his pity and his ambition. 
But his continental wars preventing Henry frem giving per- 
sonal aid, he dismissed his suppliant with letters patent, in 
which he declared that he had taken Dermod into his pro- 
tection, and that whosoever of his subjects should assist in 
restoring him to his possessions, might rest secure of royal 
patronage and support. 

Elevated with hopes of success, the exile hastened on his 
journey back. At Bristol he caused his letters to be pub- 
lickly read, and had copies of them exhibited on the doors 
and columns of the most public places, with a copious ap- 
pendix, in which he was not sparing of promises of reward, 
to those who should venture their lives and fortunes in his 
cause. But it would be incompatible with the limits of a note to 
pursue the history of this ruffian. Suffice it to say that many 
needy and ambitious adventurers, among whom the names of 
Fitzstephen, Fitzgerald, De Cogan, Prendergast and Strong- 
bow, are most conspicuous, espoused his cause, and joined his 
standard, the ensuing spring, on the coast of Wexford. Having 
lived only to witness the ruin of his country, he closed his life 
of cruelty and rapine at the Abbey of Ferns, in the beginning 
of May, 1172. 

Note XXI. p. 26. 

Boyne foams ivith bloody a coivard monarch jlies. 

The reader does not require to be told who is here meant. 

What Irishman does not know, and reprobate the memory of 

that unprincely and pusillanimous king, James II ? Because 

his raw and undisciplined kerns did not gain the victory at the 



134 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

Boyne over the veteran troops of the heroic William, he had 
the folly and ingratitude to tax them with cowardice, though 
he was himself the first who fled. Well did Sarsfield say to the 
British officers, « change but kings, and we will fight it over a-, 
gain with you." " The Irish have not forgotten the foul slan- 
der of James, nor do they fail to recriminate. They brand him 
with a name the most opprobrious in their language, and ex- 
pressive of the most dastardly cowardice. Some of them have 
said to me, « We expect little good from any of the race 
Sheemas-a-caccagh. i. e. S— — n James." 

Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland. 

Note XXII. p. 26. 
Here good Columba shelved in Christian shies^ 
The lucid day-star of Salvation rise. 
Columba, a descendant of the great Nial, king of Ireland, 
founder of the monastery at Colum-kill, and the apostle of the 
western isles, born A. D. 521. He was equally distinguished 
for his learning and piety, his zeal and indefatigable labour in 
propagating the gospel. He converted the Druidical seminary 
of rnnishowen into a college for monks, and founded upwards 
of 100 monasteries (some authors affirm 300) in Scotland and 
Ireland, among winch were those of Derry, Colerain and Rath- 
lin. But his favourite residence was Icolum-kill, or Iona, a 
seminary of learning and religion, which for many ages sup- 
plied Europe with learned and pious teachers. " From this 
nest of Columba, says Odonellus, these sacred doves took their 
flight to all quarters." Columba diedA.D.597, aged 76. Some 
' ©f his latin hymns are yet extant. 

See Smith's life of Columba. 

Note XXin. p. 27. 
Where JMargys 'walls unroofed and mouldering stand. 
The following description of Bona Marga is extracted from 
the Belfast Magazine for April 1809. 

" This abbey was founded in 1509, by Charles Mac Donnell, 
for monks of the Franciscan order, and it may be ranked a- 
mong the latest of the Monastic edifices raised in Ireland. It is 
situated about a quarter of a mile from the village of Ballycastle, 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST 135 

commanding to the West a view of the ocean, with the bold 
outlines of the rocks that rise, in many a fantastic shape, along 
the coast ; to the South the undulating line of the mountains of 
Knock-laid, and to the East the extensive glen of Carey. The 
Chapel is 100 feet in length, and 84 in breadth. The refectory 
cells, and other apartments, are too much dilapidated to allow 
any accurate description of their former size. The eastern gable 
of the chapel which is still in a tolerable state of preservation, 
is adorned with several well executed devices in bass relief, 
which however are now rapidly mouldering to decay. To 
the East of the great entrance to the Chapel are the remains of 
a small edifice with narrow pointed gabels, which seems ' to 
have been the lodge of a porter, or lay brother ; the venerable 
stillness of this sacred spot, the numerous reliques of mortality 
that surround it, and the remembrance it produces of days that 
have been, give it even in its present desolated state, an appear- 
ance more interesting, more impressive than it possessed, when 
rising in all its plenitude of monkish pride." 

Here was the burial place of the Antrim family. 

Mr. Robert Stewart of Ballycastle obligingly furnished the 
author with the annexed account of an extraordinary woman who 
formerly dwelt in the abbey, and was known by the name of the 
black Nun of Bona Marga, or Sheelah Dubh ni Valone. " She 
lived in the most austere manner, and in the constant exersiseof 
devotion. Independent of a just notion of revealed religion, she 
appears to have possessed a wonderful knowledge of future e- 
vents, and to have been enlightened by a ray of intellect more 
than human. Her predictions often bore the appearance of im- 
probability, and were by many, considered as the wanderings of 
an enthusiastic mind. Some of them however have been verified. 
Rigid in her idea of religious duty, she regarded every devia- 
tion from it as unpardonable. Tradition says, the nun had a 
sister whom she had occasion to blame for some impropriety 
of conduct; and though the offender had shown ample con- 
trition, the recluse would not be satisfied. It happened how- 
ever that the penitent had occasion, one wintry night, to beg 
shelter from her sister, who could not, from Christain motives, 
deny her request, but determined, rather than abide under the 
>same roof, to pay her accustomed devotions in the open air. 



136 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

After remaining some hours at prayer, the devout woman 
looked towards the cell, and saw a most brilliant light. Struck 
with amazement, knowing that neither fire nor taper had burn- 
ed there for many months, she approached the bed on which her 
sister lay, but only in time to hear her sigh out her last breath in 
praises to her redeemer. The light had vanished ; the re- 
cluse considered it as the sign of Heaven's forgiveness to her 
sister, and learned thenceforward to be more induJgent to hu- 
man frailty." 

Note XXIV. p. 28. 
"Thou too Dunlnce proud throne of feuda ' state. 

The castle of Dunluce is the most striking ruin on the 
coast of Antrim, perhaps in Ireland. It is situated on a rock 
nearly insulated, and perforated by a cavern re-echoing to the 
noise of the waves. Its dark basaltic walls, marked with the 
mellow tints of time, in some places form a perpendicular line 
with the mural rock on which it is built, and in others, seem to 
project or to stand without a foundation, by reason of the rock's 
decay. Its commanding situation, and its numerous gables and 
turrets, resembling tht ruins of a village destroyed by fi re, ex- 
cite a high idea of its former magnificence, and a feeling of 
regret for its lost splendour. It is joined to the main land be- 
neath, by an isthmus of rock, and above by a narrow arch 
like a wall; to which it appears that there was formerly a- 
nother wall of similar structure, running parallel, and that 
when the two walls were connected by boards, a passage was 
formed of sufficient width for the accommodation of a garrison. 
A room in the castle is said to be the favourite abode of Mave 
Roe, probably a Bansheigh, or some other fictitious personage, 
who sweeps it every night. But the sweeping winds which 
issue through it, will account for the cleanness of the room, 
without the aid of supernatural agency. 

The name of the founder of this castle is lost in the stream 
of time. De Courcy is said to have pursued his conquests in 
Ulster, as far as Dunluce, and, as he was the builder of nu- 
merous castles, it is not improbable that he laid the first foun- 
dation of tins edifice, and that it was afterwards enlarged and 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 137 

improved by the Mac Quillans, and Mac Donnells. Cox says 
it was taken from the English by Daniel Mac William (Mac 
Quillan)Anno 15l3,and it was held by him, or his posterity, till 
it fell into the possession of the Mac Donnells. In 1584 it was 
besieged, and taken by Sir John Perrot. 

" In the mean time himself, with the rest of his force, be- 
sieged the strong Castle of Dunluce. Here was at this time a 
strong ward commanded by a Scottish Captaine, who being 
summoned to deliver vp the Castle to the Queene, resolutely 
denied, protesting to defend it to the last man, whereupon the 
Deputy, hopingthe terrour of the cannon might dismay theWard 
(for other hope hee had not to win so strong a place) drew his 
forces neater, and planted his Artillery (being two Culuermgs, 
and two Sakers) for battery. This Ordnance was brought by 
Sea from Dublin to Sfcerreys, Portrushe, and thence being 
two miles, was drawne by mens hands (through want of other 
meanes) to this place. The Ward of the Castle played thick 
with their small shot, upon the Souldiers, that made the 
approach ; much to the discouragement of the workemen, 
and impeachment of the worke, being • within Musket 
shot. The deputy seeing the souldiers shrinke, commanded 
some of his own servants to supply the places of them that were 
fearfull, to fill the Gabions ; and make good the ground, him- 
self encouraging both them, and the rest, by giving not only 
his presence, but his hand to the worke, by which means the 
Ordnance was planted, and the blinders set up, the Canoniere 
beginning to play, which at first did little annoy the Castle, or 
the Ward therein, but within a little time the Pile began to 
shake through continuance, and the discharging at once of the 
Artillery. Then the courages of the Ward (unused to the de- 
fence of such places) began to quaile, insomuch as the next 
morning, a parly is demanded, and conditions propounded ; 
leave to depart with bagge and baggage, is by the Deputy- 
granted, as well to take time while the feare lasted, to prevent 
such resolution, as despaire, and a better consideration of the 
strength of the place might yceld them, as to save the charge 
of re-edifying the castle, which he intended to keepe for the 
Queene, being a place of no small importance." 

Government of Ireland, under Sir John Perrot. 
T 



J 38 NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 

Note XXV. p. 30. 

While bleak December hears the motver blithe, 
In neiv born meadoivs whet the shining scythe. 

The agricultural world is much indebted to Dr. Richardson, 
Rector of Clonfeckle, for the celebrity which he has given to 
Fiorin grass, Agrostis Stolonifera. This grass is found in every 
climate; it is more capable of resisting the injuries of the weather 
than any other grass, and has been found eminently useful in 
reclaiming bogs. In quality and quantity of produce it has no 
rival. An Irish acre will produce from 8 to 9 tons. " The 
richness and flavour of the milk from cows fed upon Fiorin 
hay are very remarkable, the result of the abundance of saccha- 
rine matter with which this vegetable is loaded. The quan- 
tity too is much increased by the superior succulence of Fiorin 
hay, as it can be used in a greener stage than any other hay ; 
and if left uncut, Fiorin affords excellent green food through 
the whole winter, 1 cut the last of mine this year on 18th 
April." 

Extract of a letter from Dr. Richardson to Fred, de Conynck, 
Esq. Copenhagen. June 10, 1811. 

Note XXVI. p. 32, 
The light of song diffuse 

JJaiccv oi Xcc[,i7ru govoaro-cc re yr,pv$ optotvXdg. 

Soph.CEdip.Tyr. 1. 187. 



END OF NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 



Note I. p. 35. 
Fair land cf Zephyrs, tffc. 
Atque uno verbo dicam, sive lernes foecunditatem, sive 
maris et portuum opportunitatem, sive incolas respicias qui 
bellicosi sunt, ingeniosi, corporum lineamentis conspicui, miri- 
fica carnis mollitie, et propter musculorum teneritatem, agili- 
tate incredibili, a multis dotibus ita felix est insula, ut non male 
dixerit Gyraldus,Naturam hoc Zephyri regnumbenignioriccuv 
lo respexisse...Cambden. 

Note II. p. 36. 
Come climb, tvith me, the cIijf-croivned hill of caves. 
The Cave-hill stands at the distance of three miles from Bel- 
fast, and is so called from some caves in the face of its cliffs. 
It has not yet been decided whether these caves are natural or 
artificial. Many incline to the latter opinion, though they ex- 
hibit no traces of the chisel. Tradition says they were former- 
ly the residence of the renowned Cuchullin ; on Mac Art's fort 
the remains of a mound and fosse ; and a little beyond it, one of 
those cairns so frequent on our mountains, are still visible. 
The Cave hill is nearly 1200 feet high. It rests on a limestone 
base, overtopped by basaltic precipices, on the face of which, 
to the North of the caves, may be seen a fine whin dyke com- 
posed of horizontal prisms, and cutting the mountain vertically 



140 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

from top to bottom. There are numerous little conical hills at 
the base of the precipice which give a pleasing variety to the 
scene, and remind the observer of the description given by tra- 
vellers, of volcanic hillocks. The fossils found here are basalt 
in many varieties, limestone, white and yellow calcareou* spar, 
beautiful crystals of zeolite, and vermilion-coloured ochre. 
The beauty and variety of the prospect from the summit will 
repay the fatigue of the ascent. To the South may be seen the 
town and shipping of Belfast, the long bridge consisting of 21 
arches, and resembling a Roman aqueduct, the valley of the 
Lagan running up to Lisburn, and Hillsborough; and, in the 
distance, Sliabh Croob, and the mountains of Mourne lifting 
their blue conical summits to the clouds The eye, turning 
thence in an Easterly direction, will pass over the well- 
cultivated fields of Downshire, the hill of Scrabo, Newton 
lough, the Isle of Man, and the shores of Galloway and Ayr- 
shire. To the S. W. stand the black mountain of Devis, and the 
broad expanse of Lough Neagh, while Sleimis, Collin, and Ag- 
new's hill form the boundary of the Northern prospect. The 
Lagan studded with numerous vessels, pours its broad navi- 
gable tide immediately beneath, washing the shores of a coun- 
try whose natural beauties art has improved. From Lisburn 
to Carrickfergus the road presents a continued succession of 
villas and hamlets, a scene gratifying at once to the eye of taste 
and the feelings of the Philanthropist. 

Note III. p. 36. 

By Old-jleet totver and Liver's hallowed grove ; 
Or ivhere high Salagh's ridge overlooks the vale 
Whose numerous beanjlelds scent the fragrant gale. 

^Inver, or Inbher, a general term for the mouth of a 
stream, is the name given to that part of Larne which stands on 
the South side of the river. It formerly contained a monastery 
of Cistersian friars. 

Larne is a neat village about eight miles distant from Car- 
rickfergus, situated at the bottom of a fruitful glen, and dis- 
tinguished for the politeness, good sense, and hospitality of its 
inhabitants. As you approach it, the bay is seen penetrating 
through a narrow rocky entrance, and expanding into a large 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 14 t 

basin, washing the shores of Island Magee, and sweeping round 
the limestone quarries of Magheramourne, and the village of 
Glynn. The Peninsula of the Curran, which, like the Sicilian 
Drepanon, derives its name from its similarity to a reaping 
hook, projects into the centre of the basin, and with the moul- 
dering ruins of Olderfleet castle, situated near its extremity, 
gives an interesting effect to the view. Vessels of 400 or 500 
tuns burthen may ride with safety in the bay. It is the only 
place where vessels, sailing between the estuaries of Foyle and 
Carrickfergus, can find a shelter from the Northern storms. 

About 3 miles from Larne, to the right of the road leading 
to Glenarm, stands the bold promontory of Ballygelly, faced 
with enormous basaltic pillars. These pillars have a small in- 
clination to the land, they are covered in some places with 
grey lichens, and in others they are black as jet, well-defined 
and articulated. Some of the joints are 7 or 8 feet long, 
and from 6 to 8 in diameter, generally pentagonal, sunk down, 
or truncated, and forming a Giant's Causeway, contracted in- 
deed in the whole, but stupendous in the parts — a small edi- 
fice of gigantic materials. 

Under the West side of the Promontory, are the ruins of a 
castle situated on a rock, which gives a name to the parish of 
Cairn-castle. This rock which is insulated at high water, was 
chosen, according to tradition, by a chieftain as a place of se- 
curity for his daughter, against the attempts of her lover. His 
precautions however were vain, for the lover approached the 
prison of his fair mistress, with more prudence than the youth 
of Abydos, and bore her away in a vessel. 

The Salagh braes, running North and South, and forming 
the segment of a large circle, are the western boundary of the 
parish of Cairn-castle. 

Note IV. p. 37. 
Or "where Glenarm extends its pebbly shores. 
Glenarm is a small village beautifully situated in a glen, 
forming with its limestone shores, the azure sea, its castle, its 
groves, and the diversified outline of its hills, a picture equally 
novel and romantic. The castle, the family seat of the Antrim 
family, is now occupied by Sir H. Vane. Lord Bisset, who was 



142 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

banished from Scotland, for the murder of the Earl of Athol, 
was settled here by favour of Henry III. Under Edward II. 
his estates were forfeited for rebellion, and invaded by Mac 
Donnell of Cantire, who claimed alliance with the Bissets. 
Here Bisset founded a monastery, the remains of which are yet 
to be seen. It is said that the most extensive Deer-park, and 
the best venison in Ireland, are in the valley of Glenarm. 
The little Deer-park is entitled to the attention of the admirer 
of nature. Huge masses of limestone fantastically grouped, 
the shores of the same substance severed into tremendous 
chasms, and wrought into caverns by the surge, the whole 
overtopped by a perpendicular range of basalt, resembling the 
walls of a fortified city, form the prominent features of this in- 
teresting scene. 

Note V. p. 37. 

Or Garrons bastion cliffs the ivaves repel^ 
Or fair Glenar'iff ivinds her wizard dell. 

To the West of Glenarm stand the villages of Straitcalye, 
Glenclye, Carnalloch, and the villa of Knappan embosomed in 
trees. Still farther along the coast, is the site of Dunmall, a 
fortress where, tradition says, " all the rent of Ireland was once 
paid," probably the tribute of the Scotch Dalaradians. The 
only memorials of it left are a mound, and fosse, and the frag- 
ment of a wall. Garron i. e. the sharp point from Gear sharp, 
and rinti, a point, consists of three promontories, projecting in 
the form of bastions, and opposing their salient angles to the 
sea ; an admirable contrivance of nature to resist the violence 
of the waves. 

On descending from Garron you wind along the shores of 
Red bay, at the base of Craig Murphy, and Sliabh Barraghad. 
GlenarifF, or according to the Irish Orthography Glenn aireamh, 
the v-lley of numbers, or aireachaibh of chiefs, opens full on the 
view, with its waterfalls dashing from the hills, and presenting 
a vast debris of rocks, scattered in many a grotesque form. One 
rock in particular, called Clogh i stookin, of chalky whiteness, 
has a striking similitude to a female figure of gigantic stature. 
In the days of Pagan superstition, it might have been regarded 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 143 

as the guardian idol of the shores. An enthusiast might mis- 
take it for Lot's wife transformed to salt. 

at simul illuc 

In fragilem mutata salem, stetit ipsa sepulchrum, 
Ipsaque imago sibi formam, sine corpore servans, 
Durat adhuc, etenim nuda statione sub aethram, 
Nee pluviis dilapsa situ, nee diruta ventis. 

Tertulliani Opera. 
A second Erostratus is said to have attempted to blow it 

up, but was happily prevented On the opposite side of 

the bay, stands a ruined castle on a rock of pudding stone, ex- 
cavated into a cavern beneath. This cavern consists of three 
chambers which were formerly eccupied as school rooms, 
though the path down to them is exceedingly precipitous, and 
a false step might be attended with awful consequences. 

When the traveller finds himself in the vale of GlenarifF, he 
may conceive that he is in the country of the genuine Oisin. 
The names of several of the surrounding objects still retain the 
names of some of the contemporaries of the renowned Eard. 
The village of Cushendall, cois-an-da-ealladh, i. e. the river-foot 
of the two swans, is also said to derive its name from one Dal- 
las, a predatory Scot who fell by the hand of Oisin, and "whose 
tomb many of the natives recollect to have seen on the coast." 
The beautiful and majestic hill of Luirg-Eadan exhibits the re- 
mains of a triple fosse and fortification known by the name of 
Fort Clauna Mourne. Fin Mac Cumhal and Oisin, with his 
clan na Boiikine, are said to have had their residence here for 
some time. 

See an account of Cushendall, in the Belfast Magazine for 
August 1809. 

Note VI. p. 37. 

Or Torres bleak rocks Titanian limbs oerspread^ 
Or cloudy Benmore lifts his giant head, 
Or ivhere Kenban his chalky broiv ttprears. 
Torr is a sharp promontory, about five miles distant from 
Cushendun, on the shores of Cushleak. The ruins of Duna- 



144 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

varre, an old fort said to be the work of Giants, may be seen 
near the point of the promontory, and at some distance above 
it, Sleacht na Barragh, their grave. The rock here has some 
appearance of stratification, with vertical fissures. It is com- 
posed of transition lime-stone, containing veins of quartz, and 
chlorite. 

" Torr is a hill, or tower (whence the Latin turris) Many 
places in Greece had it in their composition, such as Torone, 
Torete, Toreate : also in Hetruria, Turchonium. Turzon in 
Africa was a tower of the, sun. It was sometimes expressed 
Tar ; hence Tarcunia, Taracena, Tarracon in Spain ; Tarne 
(Tarrain) which gave name to a fountain in Lydia. Taron 
(Tar-on) in Mauritania." 

The tower situated on Tor point, as well as that of Turz- 
on in Africa, may have been sacred to the sun ; for that lumi- 
nary, as might be shown from a variety of proofs, was former- 
ly the object of general worship in Ireland. Greine the Irish 
of sun, is supposed by some of our antiquaries to have suggested 
the Latin epithet of Apollo Grynaeus ; " in Greek Kgavaiog, 
from Keren a horn, the emblem of power, and a title of sove- 
reignty "....Bryant, vol. 1, p. 56. 

West of Tor stands the bold and majestic promontory of 
Benmore, commonly, but improperly, known by the name 
of Fairhead, the Robogdium of Ptolemy. Hamilton describes it 
justly, as characterized hy a wild and savage sublimity. None 
of the numerous precipices on the coast, indeed, can vie with 
it in elevation, extent, or grandeur. It is composed of a range 
of enormous basaltic pillars, according to a measurement made 
in the summer of 1810, 283 feet high, and resting on a base 
which makes the whole altitude 631 feet. One of the columns, 
is a quadrangular prism, measuring 33 feet, by 36 on the 
sides, and about 200 feet perpendicular. Compared to this, 
what is Pompey's pillar, or the celebrated column which stood 
before the temple of Venus Genetrix at Rome, or the pedestal 
of Peter the Great's statue, at Petersburg. The precipice, 
towering majestic over an awful waste of broken columns, pre- 
sents to the spectator the most stupenduous colonnade ever e- 
rected by nature, and in comparison of which, the proudest 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 145 

monuments of human architecture are but the efforts of pig- 
my imbecility to the omnipotence of God. He who does not 
feel impressions of the sublime on Benmore, must be incapa- 
ble of feeling them in any situation. 

The enormous pillars of this promontory are separable in- 
to smaller columns, the line of whose contact is very percep- 
tible in some of the fallen joints. 

The above measurement was made by that distinguished 
philosopher, professor Playfair. 

The grey man's path is a fissure in the face of the preci- 
pice, by which a path winds down to the shore. A huge pil- 
lar has fallen across the top of the fissure, but it is immovea- 
bly fixed, and may be passed under without any apprehension. 

Under the western side of Fairhead lie the coal mines. Mr. 
Hamilton says, that about twelve years prior to the publica- 
tion of his letters, " the workmen, in pushing forward a new 
adit towards the coal, unexpectedly found a complete gallery, 
which had been driven forward many hundred yards ; that 
it branched into various chambers, and that the remains of 
the tools and even of the baskets used in the works were 
discovered." He supposed that this mine had been wrought 
in times of very remote antiquity, prior to the English and 
Danish invasions ; but though he has supported this opinion 
with great ingenuity, it may be concluded from later inves- 
tigation, that he was under an error ; and that the mines had 
been wrought by Mr. Macllldowny, about eighty years prior 
to the discovery — a length of time amply sufficient to form 
the stalactitical pillars and sparry incrustations which supplied 
an argument for the hypothesis. Moss and sprigs of myrtle 
are found at great depth in contact with the coal. 

Kenbann, i. e. the white or fair head, a name improperly 
transferred to Benmore, is a picturesque rock of limestone, 
topped with the ruins of a castle, about two miles westward 
of Ballycastle. Lime is found here both above and below the 
basalt — fragments of basalt are also found imbedded in the 
lime. Between this and Carrick-a-Rede there is a remarkable 
fissure, in the rock, cailed the Bulye, formed according to the 
simple philosophy of the natives, by a stroke of Cuchuliin's 

U 



146 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

Note VII. p. 37. 

Or that dread bridge by hempen fetters bound, 
From steep to steep at Reda's gulf profound. 

The basaltic rock of Carrick-a-Rede, derives its name, ac- 
cording to Hamilton, from Caraig-a-Ramhad, the rock in the 
road; because it intercepts the passage of the salmon along the 
coast. But the same derivation would apply equally to Torr 
and Kenbann. It may, perhaps, be better derived from 
Caraig-a-Drochthead, the rock of the bridge. This bridge, 
which is annually taken down, and replaced by the fishermen 
to effect a communication with the reck, for the purposes of 
fishing, is formed of ropes fastened to rings mortised in the 
rock, carried parallel across the chasm, and connected by 
boards. The chasm is 60 feet wide, and 84 deep. This light 
and airy contrivance, as it undulates beneath the tread, and 
swings to the breeze, presents an appearance of danger which 
cannot be seen without apprehension. Yet women and boys 
walk along it in perfect security, though bending beneath a 
burden of salmon or dulish. Dreadful accidents, however, 
have sometimes happened. A man on the centre of this 
bridge, and seen from a distance, by a spectator on the wa- 
ter, has a very aerial and romantic appearance. He might be 
mistaken for the genius of the rocks. 

The most remarkable places on the coast, west of Carrick- 
a-Rede, occur in the following order : 

Lirrybann... limestone cliffs... stalactitical caves. 

The village of Ballintoy — a vein of coal similar in appear- 
ance to burned wood, the surturbraud of Iceland, has been 
wrought near this, but not found very productive. 

Mount Druid... Port Campley...Temp!astragh, or the fla- 
ming church... Dunseveric, i. e. Dun Shambraic, Clover fort... 
castle ruins, on an isolated rock. 

Port Bradan, Salmon-harbour. 

P. na Brock, Badger-harbour. 

P. na Gerragh, i. e. ccaorach, Sheep-harbour. 

P. Hestell, i. e. na stall, stallion-harbour. 

P. Heogh, i. e. n'eich, Horse-harbour. 



NOTES TO BOOK FIRST. 14? 

P. na Gavan, i. e. Gamham, Calf-harbour. 
Benin Dannan, i. e. the mountain of Danan Sorcery 
P. Fad, Long-harbour. 

P. Moon, perhaps Mumhan, Munster-harbour. But why ? 
better Ma/ione, a word of rather indelicate meaning. A 
rude people seek only for expressive names, without much 
regard to delicacy. Several waterfalls in the county of 
Antrim are known to the natives by a strange appella- 
tion, which may be rendered in Latin by equa mingens. The 
names of the caves in the cliffs of Lirrybann will not bear 
even a translation. 
P. Logineen. 

Eengore, i. e. Beann Gabhair — Goat Promontory, very 
magnificent, presenting a broad convexity to the sea, and 
forming a striking contrast to the semicircular bays. 
P. na Trughen, Lamentation-harbour. 
Ben ban na farage, the white cliff of the sea. 
Pleaskin, probably from Plaisg-cinn, elastic or dry-head 8 

on account of its great height. 
This is the most striking of all the semicircular precipices 
in this range of coast. In the sixteen different strata of which 
it is composed, beauty and sublimity are wenderfully blended 
and harmonized. Over a dark and rugged base, fringed with 
incessant foam, it lifts its sides adorned with various tints of 
green, grey lichens, and vermilion rock, with a rapid acclivi- 
vity, to about half its elevation, and thence becomes perpen- 
dicular to the summit. On a stratum of red ochre, at the 
elevation of 200 feet, stands a magnificent gallery of basaltic 
columns, 44 feet high. A bed of irregularly prismatic basalt 
54 feet in thickness succeeds, and forms the basis of a se- 
cond colonnade of longer, and more massy columns than the 
former. Another thin stratum of basalt, crowned with a light 
covering of green, and canopied by the cerulean ether, forms 
the summit, at the altitude of nearly 400 feet from the sea. 
This theatre of nature, composed of so many various strata har- 
moniously arranged, rock upon rock, and gallery on gal- 
lery, so magnificent, so solitary, facing the wide Atlantic as 
if formed for the temple of " spirits from the vasty deep.," 1 



148 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

impresses the mind with admiration and awe, and shows us how 
nature surpasses art in the symmetry of her plans," at much as 
in the magnitude of her materials. 

P. na Brock, i. e. Eadger-harbour. 

P. na Tober, i. e. Harbour of the well. 

P. na Calye; i. e. Old woman's-harbour. 

P. na Spania, i. e. Spanish harbour, so named from a ves- 
sel of the "Invincible Armada," lost here — a stupendous 
precipice, almost equal to Pleaskin. 

P. jV adadh ruadh, Fox's Port. 

Chimney tops — two insulated pillars standing before the 
promontory, and so named from their similarity to chimnies. 

Reeostin — Roveren Valley, probably a corruption of rinn, 
len, ialia, the point of the walled promontory, and so called 
from the remarkable whin dyke which cuts the face of the cliff. 
It is shaped exactly like a barbed arrow head. West of this 
clifr, is a large rock in the sea, which has lately received the 
name of the lion rock, on account of its striking similitude 
to that animal, when seen from a certain position. 

Port NofFer, so pronounced, according to Hamilton, for 
Port na bfathach, the Giant's Port. It seems, however, to 
be more fairly derived from Port na fhir, i. e. the Port of the 
man, viz. Fin Mac Cumhal. The Giant's Causeway lies here. 

P. na Ganye, Sandy Port— the stooken rock and sea-gull 
isle. 

P. na Baw, Cow-port. 

P. Coon, the Port of the ocean, famous for its Cave. 

Skirra-kruben, Dunkerry Cave, accessible only by water... 
— Dunaloghlin, said to be the last place occupied by the 
I>anes in Ireland ; Bush-foot. 

P. Baliintrea.. .Seaport. ..Dunluce.. .the White Rocks... Port- 
Rush. 

Note VIII. p. 38. 

Where gay Morgana and her fairy train , 
Sport "with ths senses of the tvondering stvain. 

An appearance very similar to that extraordinary phe- 






NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 149 

nomenon, known by the name of the Fata Morgana, in 
the Straits of Reggio, between the isle of Sicily and the 
coast of Calabria, has been seen several times, near the 
Bush-foot strand, and between Rathlin and the continent. 
In one instance, a gentleman of undoubted veracity, the 
commander of a corps of Yeomen, being at some distance from 
the shore, with a party in his pleasure boat, distinctly saw 
a body of armed men going through their exercise, on the 
beach, and so complete was the deception, that he supposed 
it had been a field day which he had forgotten. A wo- 
ynan also, near Tor point, at a time when an alarm of French 
invasion prevailed, very early on a summer's morning, saw a 
numerous fleet of French vessels advancing in full sail up the 
channel. She withdrew in amazement, to call her friends to 
witness the spectacle, but on her return, the whole had va- 
nished. 

The channel between Rathlin and the main land, and al- 
so between the Skirry rocks and the Bush-foot, and Pert- 
rush strand, has probably a strong resemblance to the chan- 
nel of F.eggio, particularly in the indenting of its shores, the 
velocity of its tides, and the vortices produced by counter- 
currents. Indeed all the circumstances mentioned in Minasi's 
annexed description and theory of the phenomenon, as seen on 
the coast of Calabria, may on certain occasions be so com- 
bined, as to produce a similar appearance on the shores of 

Antrim. 

t 

" The water in the Straits of Reggio is constantly agi- 
tated, and thrown into ridges and whirlings, by the violence 
of the current, by the particular direction of certain winds, 
and by the irregular conformation of the coast. At times, it 
likewise happens, that a very dense vapour is accumula- 
ted over the waters of the channel. When, the rising sun 
shines from that point whence its incident rays form an 
angle of 45° on the sea of Reggio, and the bright surface 
of the water is not distmbed either by the wind or the cur- 
rents, the spectator being placed on an eminence of the city, 
with his back to the sun, and his face to the sea, en a sud- 
den, there appears on the water, as in a catoptric theatre, 
various multiplied objects, viz. numberless series of pilasters, 



150 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

arches, castles well delineated, regular columns, lofty towers, 
superb palaces, wiih balconies and windows, extended alley* 
of trees, delightful plains with herds and flocks, armies of 
men on foot and horseback, and many other strange figures, 
in their natural colours and proper action, passing rapidly 
in succession along the surface of the sea, during the whole 
of the short period of time, while the above-mentioned causes 
remain." 

" But if in addition to the circumstances before described, 
the atmosphere be highly impregnated with vapours, and 
dense exhalations not previously dispersed by the action of 
the wind or waves, or rarefied by the sun, it then happens, 
that in this vapour, as in a curtain extended along the chan- 
nel, to the height of about 24 or 25 feet, and nearly down to 
the sea, the observer will behold the scene of the same ob- 
jects not only reflected from the surface of the sea, but like- 
wise in the air, though not so distinct or well defined, as the 
former objects from the sea." 

Lastly, if the air be slightly hazy and opaque, and at the 
same time dewy, and adapted to form the iris, then the a- 
bove-mentioned objects will appear only at the surface of the 
sea, as in the first case, but all vividly coloured or fringed 
with red, green, blue and other prismatic colours." 

" These appearances induced the author to distinguish the 
phenomena into three species, viz. the marine, the aerial, and 
the prismatic morgana." 

" Minasi supposes the objects seen in the Fata Morgana 
are the representations of the objects on the coast. He ac- 
counts for the appearance by the supposed inclination of the 
surface of the sea, and its subdivisions into different plains, by 
the contrary eddies. He explains the Aerial Morgana, by refer 
ring it to the reflective, and refractive powers of effluvia sus- 
pended in 'the air." D. Rees' new Cyclopaedia. 
Note IX. p. 41. 
What clouds of smoke in azure curls aspire? 

The practice of burning sea-weed for the purpose of making- 
kelp, or mineral alkali, an article of great use in agriculture, 
bleaching, soap-boiling, and the manufacture of glass, is fre- 
quent every where along the £oast. The fuci which formerly 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. J 51 

lay neglected, and which are not even mentioned in any lease 
drawn fifty years ago, produce a most luxuriant annual harvest, 
so that Homer's epithet ar^vyiToto unfruitful, is no longer 
applicable to the ocean. 

The Nereids, as well as the Dryads, can boast of their leafy 
bowers. Immense forests of marine plants, trees let us call 
them, may be seen in a clear day, waving their flexile leaves 
and branches in the current, over their native rocks, and pre- 
senting almost as great a variety of colours as the forests of 
the mountain. The leaves of the sea-weed noticed in the straits 
of Le Maire and named by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, the 
fucus giganteus, measured four feet in length, and some of 
the stalks, though not thicker than a man's thumb, one hun- 
dred and twenty. , 

The kelp produced from its sea-weed furnishes Rathlin 
with the means of paying nearly its whole rent j and it is said 
that the rents of one highland chief, the Clanronald, have risen 
£ 2000 per annum, by the kelp stones of two islands. In some 
places of the Ards, on the Downshire coast, the people begin to 
cultivate it regularly by laying stones in ridges on the sandy 
beach, to attract the plants, and furnish them with a proper 
soil. 

An excavation made in the ground in the form of a grave, 
but not so deep, and surrounded with stones, forms the kiln in 
which the weed, which has been previously cut from the rock, 
and dried in the sun, is gradually burned. During the ope- 
ration, the vegetable salt melts and accumulates at the bottom. 
In fine calm weather, when many kilns are at work they send 
forth such clouds of smoke, as overshadow almost the whole 
coast. When a fire is kept up during the night, as is some- 
times the case, it presents the spectator wtih a very novel 
picture, a lively image of a nocturnal sacrifice, or the infernal 
cauldron of Macbeth's witches. 

Note X. p. 41. 

A race inured to toil severe^ 

Of manners simple , and of heart sincere. 

When a stranger arrives at the Giant's Causeway he is imme- 
diately surrounded by a host of guides offering their services, 



\5% NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

To repel the oppressive attentions of these courteous Sans cu- 
lottes, is by no means an easy task, for when brushed off they 
return like horse flies to the attack. The best mode is for the 
stranger to attach himself to one, who, for a moderate fee, will 
show and describe every thing curious. 

The guides do not exhibit the character of the Irish peasant- 
ry in the most favourable light. They are envious, Ltigious, 
and corrupted by idleness, and their dependence on the pre- 
carious bounty of strangers. In the peasantry of the low glens 
we behold a very different race, open, obliging, communicative 
without hope of reward, acquainted with the traditionary his- 
tory of their country, and retaining the native language and 
characteristic inquisitiveness of the Irish. 

The address with which a peasant puts his questions to dis- 
cover from a stranger his country, profession, circumstances, 
in short, his whole history, and the perseverance with which he 
resumes his inquiries, when baffled by an evasive answer, are 
surprising. Gain his confidence, and it is easily gained by a lit- 
tle familiar conversation, and he will unbosom his whole soul to 
you, press you to accept all the little kindnesses he can bestow, 
and take a pride in inseming you (the Irish peasant is never at a 
loss for an expression) into the subject of any of your inquiries. 
The inhabitants of the rest of the coast are chiefly of recent 
Scotch origin, and have less suppleness, simplicity, and courte- 
sy, but more solidity, industry, and domestic comforts, united 
to a high spirit of Presbyterian independence. They are, in ge- 
neral, ignorant of the history and traditions of the soil they 
inhabit, but versed in the more important knowledge of ho- 
ly writ. " On the whole," to adopt the language of Hamil- 
ton, " the middling and lower ranks of people in this quan. 
ter of the kingdom, are a valuable part of the community; 
but one must estimate their worth, as a miner does his ore, 
rather by its weight than its splendour." 

Fishing, kelp-burning, and the manufacture of linen, give 
employment to many hands. Several cotton-factories have 
been lately erected, and the modern improvements in agri- 
culture are making rapid progress. The example of Mal- 
com MacNeil, esq. of Larne, as an extensive and successful 
agriculturist on the most improved plan, and as one who 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 153 

has been instrumental in introducing the best breed of black 
cattle in the province, deserves to be imitated and recorded. 

Note XI. p. 42. 
High on yon cliff" the fisher takes his stand. 

At the mouth of almost every river and streamlet, there 
is a salmon fishery. The mode of fishing is somewhat singu- 
lar, and has a very picturesque effect. The course of the 
salmon along the coast in quest of the streams which they 
annually ascend to deposite their spawn, >s well known to 
the fishers, one of whom is stationed, at a convenient dis- 
tance from the shore, in his boat, with his net spread ; ano- 
ther "stands on the summit of the adjoining rock, with his 
eve steadily fixed on the water, to mark the salmon's ap- 
proach. The instant a shoal appears, he flings a shower of 
stones into the water, to terrify them from their direct course, 
while the boatman, with all expedition, surrounds them with 
his net. 

The salmon affords a good exemplification of the won« 
derfully prolific nature of fish, though by no means equal 
to some others of the aquatic tribes. 11000 peas have been 
found in one. The peas, as has been ascertained by the 
experiments of a gentleman who kept some of them in a 
glass of water which he changed regularly every day, swell 
up, and burst, and present the appearance of small tad- 
poles, their form is then gradually unfolded into that of 
perfect fish. In this state they suffer great persecution, not 
onlv from their enemies in the water, but from thousands 
of gulls which mark their egress from the river to the ocean. 
The growth of those which escape is very rapid. They go 
down in March or April, attended by the parenc fihes, as 
guides and protectors, and in two months return grawls of 
six or seven lbs. weight. It has been observed that they re- 
turn uniformly from the east. Most of the fish taken in 
their passage up the rivers are females, but in October and 
November, when casting their spawn, they are always found 
in pairs; never in deep or still water, but in streams that run 
over a hard gravelly bottom. During the deposition of the 
spawn, for which they make an excavation with their snouts, 
V 



154 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

six or eight inches deep, the male is seen moving round the 
female, to protect the peas from little fishes, and impreg- 
nate them with his milt. It is a general opinion that the 
same fishes, or their progeny, return to the place which they 
left the preceding year. More than one pair are never 
observed on the same ford. The salmon taken in the Bann, 
is thick, short, and round, while that of the Bush, by its 
length and smaliness, is fitted for swimming in shallow 
streams . 

The best fisheries are at the cuts in the Bush, and the 
Bann, above Colerain. A cut consists of two parallel walls, 
built in the current of the river, connected at the upper 
end by a line of stakes close enough to prevent the escape 
of a salmon : two rows of similar stakes, one from the low- 
er extremity of each wall, project down the stream in an an- 
gular direction, and approach so close as to leave only one 
passage at the apex of the angle, wide enough for the 
admission of a single fish. Thus, a complete trap is for- 
med ; and when the fish enters, as he constantly opposes 
his head to the current, there is no egress. 

Facilis decensus Averni. 

The gate of hell lies open night and day, 
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way; 
' But to return, and view the cheerful skies, 
In this the task and mighty labour lies. 

Brtdex. 
It is curious, though painful to a spectator of humani- 
ty, to see the attempts of the poor captive to leap through 
the upper barrier of stakes, and rise over the white tor- 
rent which is constantly foaming- through the intervening 
spaces. (I speak of the cutts at the falls of Colerain.) 
Baffled at length by his unavailing exertions, he leaves his 
place for a new comer, and retires to the lower part of 
the cut, where he remains till he is taken up by the fish- 
er's net. 500 salmons have been caught in one of these traps 
in the course of a day. 

When the salmon, in making the leap, is out of the water, 
Lis fins, and his whole torm, appear expanded at full length, 
and his dorsal fin is vertical to the plane of the horizon ; from 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 155 

which circumstances I should suppose that the force cf his 
spring does not depend altogether, as is commonly supposed, 
on the muscular strength of his tail. But according to Drayton, 
when he is about to leap, he takes his tail in his mouth. 

"When the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find, 

Which hither from the sea comes yearly by his kind ; 
As he towards season grows, and stems the wat'ry tract 
Where Tivy falling down, makes a high cataract, 
Forced by the rising rocks that there her course oppose, 
Altho' within her bounds they meant her to enclose ; 
Mere, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive, 
And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive ; 
His tail takes in his mouth, and bending like a bow 
That to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw, 
Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand, 
That bended end to end, and startled from man's hand 
Far of itself doth cast, so does the Salmon vault, 
And if at first he fail, his second summersault* 
He instantly assays, and from his nimble ring, 
Still yerking never leaves until himself he fling 
Above the opposing stream." 

The fisheries, it is said, are not so profitable now as former- 
ly, owing to various causes. They are carried on too long. 
No fish can ascend the rivers before the twelfth of August. 
The early breeders are destroyed, and many are taken in the 
act of spawning, by poachers, who use lights made of the re- 
sinous fir, found in bogs, not, as many believe, to attract the 
fish to the glare, but to discover them at the bottom of the 
water. 

About 2500 fish are caught annually in the Bush, and ex- 
ported, with the product of some other fisheries, to Liverpool. 
All the fisheries from Larne to Colerain are the property of 
the Antrim family. That of the Bush is rented at =£300. 



* Summersault, or summerset from soubresault Fr. A high 
leap in which the heels are thrown over the head. Johnson's 
Diet. To throw a Summerset, is a phrase common with tum- 
blers. 



156 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

Note XII. p. 43. 
What different instinct bids the silvery eel, 
In countless train up Banna s torrents -wheel? 
Agreeably to a wonderful provision of nature, the eel 
and salmon are Jed by opposite instincts to migrate, and 
make room for each other at their particular seasons. In 
the months of May, June, and even July, the eel fry, just 
burst into life, may be seen in myriads ascending the Bann. 
The falls of Colerain are no obstacle to their progress. 
They win'i their silent march among the fissures of the 
rock, or the twistings of straw ropes, which the fishermen 
sometimes let down to assist them. Guided by irresistible 
instinct they pursue their way near the banks of the ri- 
ver, to gain the assistance of counter currents, till at length 
they arrive at Lough Beg, and the more spacious waters 
of Lough Neagh. Here their growth is extremely rapid. 
In the short space of a few months they are at their full 
size, three or four feet in length, supple and strong, and 
fitted for contending with the tides of ocean, when again, 
in obedience to the great law of Nature, they forsake the 
lake, and hasten towards their parent deep. But of the 
many thousands which commence this perilous journey, a 
very inconsiderable number escapes the snares of the fish- 
er. At the wiers of Toome, Port-na, and Mavanagher, 
they are captured day and night, but chiefly at midnight, 
in the time of floods and storms, and the dark of the 
moon. 

The apparatus for the eel-fishery consists of a s&ey, and 
a net called a cockle. To form the skey, large stones are 
put into a wicker frame, and sunk in the river. An islet 
is thus formed large enough to contain a cabin for the 
accommodation of the fishers. A row of such islets, at 
proper distances, is constructed across the current, and two 
lines of stakes, one from each of the contiguous islets, pro- 
ject about 30 or 40 feet down the stream, converging, 
and forming the legs of an acute isosceles triangle. The 
net, which is about 8 or 10 yards long, .shaped like a tri- 
angular bag, and composed of meshes gradually diminish- 
ing towards the bottom, where it draws together like the 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 15? 

mouth of a purse, is fastened to the vertex of the skey. 
The passage of the eels being interrupted by the stakes, 
they have no apparent egress but by the very place where 
the nets are hung, and whither they are hurried by the 
confined, and consequently accelerated impetuosity of the 
current. 

Young eels have been observed in a small stream at the 
collieries of Ballycaste, making their way up the face of a 
fall, 30 feet high, and actually tearing behind all the obsta- 
cles of so precipitous a journey. 

It seems to be a matter of doubt whether the eel fry re- 
turn full grown eels the same season. Some conceive that 
such a growth is too rapid to be admitted as fact. But 
they who maintain the opposite opinion, defend it by ur- 
ging that the fisheries are always good, or bad, in propor- 
tion to the number of fry seen ascending. The growth of ma- 
ny of the feathered tribes is equally rapid. 

Note XIII. p. 43. 

In tuhose clear tuaves the prickly holly thrown, 
Its nature loses, and transmutes to stone. 

The supposed petrifying quality of Lough Neagh has long 
been a matter of notoriety. Nennius, a writer of the ninth 
century, says, that when a piece of wood is fashioned, and 
thrown into the lake, it becomes stone, in the course of a year. 
It appears too, from some latin verses quoted in Barton's lectures 
on Lough Neagh, that it was believed if a stake were fixed in 
the lake, and left there for seven years, the part unde ground 
would be converted into iron, that which was covered by the 
water would become stone, while the part which remained in 
the open air would undergo no alteration. 

Mr. Fra. Nevil in a paper published in the Philosophical 
Transactions, about a century ago, affirms that there is no 
petrifying quality in the lake. He founds his opinion on his 
own observations, and the experiments of Mr. Brownlow on 
some holly stakes which he left in the water for a number of 
years, without finding the expected change. Mr. Lhwyd says 
" he could make nothing of the petrifying quality of Lough 



158 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

Neagh," and most of his successors, I believe, in the same 
path of inquiry, must make the same acknowledgment. Some 
suppose the petrifying quality to reside in the soil ; and pea- 
rods, it is said, have had their ends petrified j but can any one 
furnish a specimen with incontestible proof, that it has under- 
gone the change in any given portion of time ? 

The greatest number of petrifactions on the globe are sub- 
stitutions of lime for the organic matter of the plant or animal, 
but, in this case, the wood appears changed into flint ; and as 
in the instance of calcareous petrifactions, the waters which 
produce the effect are loaded with h'me ; so we should expect 
in this instance to find the waters impregnated with flinty 
earth. But in several trials which have been made, by dif- 
ferent persons, no silicious earth has been detected. Two of 
the rivers which flow into the lake, where the petrifactions are 
most numerous, viz. Glenavy and Crumlin, have also been ex- 
amined with the same result. 

It may fairly be questioned, then, whether the process by 
which the wood has been petrified be now in action. The 
change may have happened in some distant age under circum- 
stances which no longer exist. The warm springs of Iceland 
are now daily depositing silicious incrustations, but should 
they lose their heat they would probably cease to be impreg- 
nated with flint, and future travellers might seek in vain for 
the cause of the flinty deposition. 

Some have supposed the petrifactions of Lough Neagh to 
be Lapides sui generis y but that they have once been wood is 
scarcely to be doubted. They have all the external characters 
of wood, the fibre, the annual rings, and even the pith dis- 
tinctly marked by a difference of colour and texture. Besides 
the ligneous matter is found in considerable quantity with the 
stone, and is seldom if ever totally obliterated, as has been 
proved by chemical analysis. Barton mentions a specimen 
found in Crumlin river which weighed 700 pounds. He stiles 
it AAAS ANAIAHZ, and describes it as extremely hard ex- 
ternally, striking fire with steel, but internally of wood. Pe- 
trifactions are found many miles from the Lake. Calcareous 
petrifactions of hazel nuts are dug up from some feet below the 
surface cf the beach at Carrickfergus. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 159 

The other stones found on the borders of Lough Neagh 
which have attracted attention, are Rock crystals and calce- 
dony. The former are found in small quantity, and seem to 
have been transported by torrents from mountains on the S.W. 
of the lake where there are primitive strata. The Calcedony 
has, probably, been washed from ruins, or strata of basalt, 
which form the greater part of all the solid strata, on the 
margin of the lake. Among the stones collected by Barton, 
he mentions a Mocoa which weighed 1 pound, a Carnelian \ 
of a pound, and a mass of crystal 2 pounds 2 oz. A crystal 
has been found at Ballycastle weighing 30 pounds, but none e- 
qual to the celebrated Dungiven crystal which weighs, it is 
said, 70 pounds. 

Note XIV. p. 43 
Or o'er the "whirling surge the feather spread, 
To tempt the Glashanfrom his oozy bed. 

The Glashan, coal fish, Gadus Carbonarius, is known on 
the coast of Antrim during she several stages of its growth by 
the names of Pickoc, Blockan, Glashan, and Greylord. When 
at full size they weigh from twenty to thirty pounds. There 
are considerble fisheries for them at Island Magee, Larne, and 
Glenarm ; and they furnish a cheap, wholesome, and nutritious 
food. 

Six or seven stout fishing boats may be seen leaving the shores 
of Larne, on a summer evening, and directing their course 
to the maidens, or Hulins, about which rocks are the places 
most favourable for fishing. At the ebb and flow of tide, two 
men row against the current, so that the boat continues nearly 
stationary, the impulse of the oars counteracting the force of 
the stream. The hook coarsely dressed with a goose feather is 
thrown on the water, and greedily caught by the fishes, which 
are often so numerous, that they literally cover the face of the 
deep, and may be taken by a pole armed with an iron hook. 
At Drainsbay, near Larne, in 1810, 456 fishes supposed to 
weigh upwards of five tons, were captured by a single boat, in 
one night. 

In a fine evening the fishery presents a most amusing scene. 



160 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

Flocks of sea-birds screaming as they fly in airy circles ; the 
sun-beams dancing on the glassy swell ; — the boatmen singing 
as they row, while the fishers are drawing in their prey ; — the 
fishes playing innumerable, and seeming to take a pride in ex- 
posing their burnished scales, glittering like gems to the sun ; — 
the distant hills of Ayrshire, Ailsa, Arran, Cantire, and the 
jutting promontories of the Antrim coast, ranged around in 
romantic beauty — all form a picture whose beauty and variety 
no quill can describe, nor pencil pourtray. 
Note XV. p. 44. 
Down to the ivreck-strex.vn beach when storms arise 
The ruffian plunderer ■> led by Rapine hies. 
The shores of my native country have never, I trust, been 
contaminated by the perpetration of the crime which is here 
made the subject of reprobation. On the contrary, its natives 
are always prompt in displaying their characteristic courage 
and generosity in assisting the shipwrecked mariner, and in 
preserving for its rightful owners whatever property can be 
rescued from the waves. In the disastrous winter of 1810 a 
vessel from Glasgow was driven on a rock near the Gobbins, 
and the people on shore showed the most friendly solicitude, 
and made the most vigorous exertion to save the crew and the 
cargo. The life of one man, whose name deserves to be re- 
corded, Robt. Mac Calmont, fell a sacrifice to his active hu- 
manity. He left a wife and five children to deplore his loss. 
The laudable and politic liberality of the Belfast Insurance com- 
pany has rewarded his merit in the persons of his family, and 
endeavoured to sooth their regret for their sad deprivation of 
a husband and a father. 

"Why do not magistrates, and country gentlemen, exert them- 
selves to prevent an atrocity, which stamps the character of 
Barbarism on every shore where it is perpetrated, and which 
reflects a disgrace on every man, in the district, who does not 
lift an arm to oppose It ? 

Note XVI. p. 45. 
The herring's march they folloiv from the pole. 
In the months of May, June, and July, the herring pays 
its annual visits to the N.E. shores of Antrim, and Down. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. JfJl 

Were the visits of these useful creatures certain and unvary- 
ing, they would furnish an inexhaustible source of wealth. But 
it is a well known fact in their history, that they will show a 
predilection for a shore some seasons, and afterwards desert it 
for many years together. The failure of the fisheries is attri- 
buted, by the author of the history of die county of Down, to 
several causes, as to the making of kelp, which practise, he 
thinks, robs the young fry of shelter and food -, to the throw- 
ing of fish garbage into the sea ; the havoc made among them 
by voracious fish, and trail nets, whose meshes are too narrow 
to allow the fry to escape. The first and second causes are not 
satisfactory. Most of our shores are so bold that they are 
accessible only by water, and the wreck which is burned for kelp 
is only that which can be cut from the rocks at low tide ; so 
that whatever shelter sea-weed may afford the finny tribes is, 
in a great measure, permanent. The garbage thrown into the 
sea is too trifling to produce the supposed effect, especially 
when we consider that much of it is devoured by other fish. 
The other causes may no doubt thin their numbers considerably. 
The herring is seldom seen between lough Swilly, and the 
point of Tor, owing, probably, according to the ingenious con- 
jecture of Mr. Templeton, to the strong influence of counter- 
tides. The tide of flood from the Northern Ocean, running to 
the east, is repelled at Rathlin and produces a counter-current 
to the west : and hence the flood tide appears to flow along 
part of the shores of Antrim, Deny, and Donegall nine hours, 
while the ebb lasts only three. The herring, to avoid contend- 
ing with the eddy stream;, is supposed to keep on its course in 
the great eastern tide. The fisheries seldom produee more 
than are necessary for immediate consumption. 

Note XVII. p. 46. 

See as they gambol o'er the hoary brine t 

What porpoise shoals ivith long reflections Thine. 

The Porpoise, Delphinus Phoccena, and the Grampus, Del- 
phinus Orca, are frequently seen along the coast in pursuit of 
the herring and salmon. A shoal of porpoises :s compared to 
a pack of hounds in full chase. Their gambols will remind the 

W 



162 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

classical observer, of Ovid's description of the dolphin. Undi- 
que dant saltus, &c. 

In wanton leaps they cleave the briny way, 
And sport, and glitter in the dripping spray, 
Now downward wheel, and upward now advance, 
Curve their forked tails, and thrid the liquid dance ; 
Drink the salt waves, and then from nostrils wide, 
In rainbow jets propel the hissing tide. 
The author of the history of the county of Down observes 
that " more than 40 of these fish came up Carrickfergus bay, 
and were pursued into shallow water by a ship's crew, who fir- 
ed at them, till they lodged them in the ooze above White- 
house, when the tides retiring, they were all taken, and yield- 
ed great quantities of oil. A suit was commenced by the earl 
of Donegall for the royalty of these large fish, against the cap- 
tors, which, at length, after a great expense, was carried in fa- 
vour of the royalty." 

The Grampus sometimes ventures so near the shore, that 
he is killed by the gunner. He is said to follow his prey even 
to the long bridge, but generally pays the price of his teme- 
rity with his life. A very large one was shot some years ago 
beiow Macedon point, and exhibited in Belfast. 

The whale, perhaps the Balasna mysticetus, has been some- 
times cast on the shores of Antrim . The huge vertebrae of 
one may be seen at the castle of Glenarm. In the summer 
of 1807, a loud noise, like the rushing of waters, probably 
the spouting of a whale, was heard in the seas about Glenarm 
and Garron point. It caused so much terror among the fisher- 
men, that for several nights, they would not venture to sea. 
A much more formidable enemy, the Shark, once followed 
a vessel into Carrickfergus bay, and bit a limb from a man 
who, on account of some misdemeanour, had been suspended 
in the water over the vessel's side. 

Note XVIII. p. 50. 
Hie Cyrencs offspring let me go 
To ■viciv the ivonders of the ivorld beloiu. 

Simul alta jubet discedere late 
Flumina, qua juvenis gressus inferret, &c, 

Virg. Georg. iv.359. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 163 

At once she waved her hand on either side, 
At once the ranks of swelling streams divide. 
Two rising heaps of liquid crystal stand, 
And leave a space betwixt of empty sand. 
Thus safe received, the downward track he treads 
Which to his mother's watery palace leads. 

Dryden. 
Corry Vreckan, mentioned in the succeeding lines of the 
poem, is a dreadful vortex between the isles of Jura, and Scar- 
va, scarcely less terrible than the famous whirlpool of Mael- 
strom, on the coast of Norway, and probably, produced by 
similar causes, the multiplied eddies of counter currents made 
by the rapid passage of the flood tide thro' a narrow rocky chan- 
nel. It derives it name either from one Brechtan, a Danish 
prince who perished in its waves, or from two Gaelic words, 
signifying the " spotted cauldron." During the time of a spring 
tide, and a strong westerly wind, it is described as more terri- 
bly awful than Charybdis itself. The conflicting billows rise 
in foam to the clouds, and with a noise so tremendous that it 
may be heard at the distance of twenty miles. Tho' a skiff may 
pass it in safety at ebb water, the stoutest vessel in the British 
navy dares not encounter its rage. Should she attempt it she 
would be twirled round like a feather on the pool, and instant- 
ly absorbed. 

T*j ^' %7ra n$ vqvg (pvyiv uv^^coy, Y,rtg ikvjTcci, 
AAAa S - ' opx 7rivc(,xc(,s ?i vnaiv x.cx.i o-o)p.ot,Tcc (parav 
Kvf4a!¥ oihos <po(>s%<ri, Kv^og r 0X0010 SviXXai. 

Odyss. XII. 1. 66. 
Not the fleet bark when prosperous breezes play, 
Ploughs o'er that roaring surge its desperate way j 
O'erwhelmed it sinks : while round a smoke expires, 
And the waves flashing seem to burn with fires. 

Pope. 

Note XIX p. 52. 

While bright, and brighter yet, the beaconed steep 
Glows tvith collecting Jires, vast diatnond of the deep. 

In the promontory of Bengore, the fishermen frequently 



164 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

observe a luminous appearance at night, which they say is caus- 
ed by a diamond in the face of the cliffs, but probably by the 
attraction of the electric fluid from the surrounding air. 

Note XX. p. 52. 
Chained to such rock in drear Caucasian clime 
Thy son Japetus^ gloried in his crime. 

When the daring imagination of -ffischylus planned the de- 
sign of " Prometheus bound," he had such a picture as Ben- 
more before him. And the spectator, as he contemplates the 
magnificent promontory, may fancy that he beholds the scene- 
ry of that sublime production, whether it be when the waves 
of numberless smiles (AJUjgiSpMH ygAawpfc#,) dimple the face of 
ihe deep, or the embattled elements are forth in their rage, and 
the son of Japetus is thus madly braving the indignation of 
Jove. 

Tiv^og muQyixvis fioor(>v%o<;, ottB-^^ §* 
Epz6i£ ) i<?3'e>> ftgoflri, <r(pccx.iXa r 
Aygiav c&npm %3-ovcc ef ix, TruS/away 
Avloitg QjZfiiq mivfta xgctos&ivoi, 

Kvf/.OC, Si 7T0v\% tqctyjil £0&ftl 

TZvyjc&esm rov $ a^ccviuv 
A?Tg&y ettcdas' z$ n x.&Xoavov 
Tcifflccgov cce^riv gey/en depots 
Tzpov, avxyxns siccus oivuis* 
Uetvlag zpz y % B-etvetrairu, 
Here let the Thunderer hurl in ire. 
His curling twisted rays of fire ; 
Let the ethereal cope of heaven 
By warring winds be torn, or by Ins thunders riven j 
Let the wild spirit of the air 
The roots of earth's foundations tear ; 
Let eddying surges to the stars arise, 
Confound their course, and break the order of the skies 
Yes, down to hell's tremendous reign 
This body let him hurl, and chain 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 165 

In fates strong links ; — th' unconquerable soul 
Defies the tyrant's power, and knows not death's controul. 
The reader may perhaps say with Mercury, " These are 
the ravings of a frenzied brain." But they are perfectly suit- 
able to the wild genius of iEschylus, and to the character of 
one who, like Milton's Satan, " durst defy th' Omnipotent to 
arms." 

Note XXI. p. 55. 
He sees ivith dread dismay tJi approaching sivain, 
And tries again to rise but tries in vain. 

One pair of Eagles have their eyry in the cliffs of Benmore, 
and they will " bear no rival near their throne." If one of them 
chance to be destroyed by the gun, or any other mischance, the 
remaining one, it is said, disappears, for a time, but at length 
returns with a mate. The story of the Eagle taken by the pea- 
sant, is well known to those who have visited the lake of Kil- 
larney. He was sitting in a valley, where he had gorged him- 
self on carrion, and being unable to rise, became the captive of 
a peasant, who took advantage of his situation. He must have 
been a degenerate eagle, no true bird of Jove. 

Vultur jumento, et canibus, crucibusque relictis 
Ad fcetns properat, partemque cadaveris affert : 
Sed leporem, aut capream famulse Jo vis, et generosse- 
In saltu venantur aves. 

Juvenal Sat. XIV. 

From plundered gibbets, carrion herds, or steeds, 

Or dogs obscene, her young the vulture feeds ; 

Eut Jove's winged minister, and birds that share 

His high-born spirit, hunt the rapid hare ; 

On woods and mountains urge the chase afar, 

And wage on nimble goats a nobler war. 
An excellent breed of falcons builds annually in the Gobbins. 
Island Magee was formerly held by an annual presentation of 
a cast of these birds to the crown, but the practise is now gone 
into disuse. 

The Barnacle annualy visits the Loughs of Larne, Belfast, 
and Strangford, in great numbers. They feed on the sea-weed 



166 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

called sweet-grass, or sleech, and are justly reckoned among 
the most delicate of the Duck tribes. On those parts of the is- 
land, however, where they cannot find sweet-grass, they ac- 
quire a rank fishy taste. On their first arrival from the arctic 
rocks, where they rear their progeny unmolested, and where 
they have not been taught to suspect an enemy, great havoc is 
made among them by the arms of the fowler. It is amusing to 
hear their hoarse murmurs, and to see the order and regula- 
rity of their marshalled flight. 

At? lieu %v y^ii^uva, (pvyav, tcva ciS-zg-Qxtov opePOV, 
KA#yyjj roctys 7T&T6y]en nr SlKicivoio ^octav. 

When inclement winters vex the plain 

With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, 
With noise and order through the midway sky. 

Pope. 

Some of them have been taken alive, and partly domesti- 
cated. But, at the time of emigration, they have been observ- 
ed to betrav great uneasiness, and to withdraw, for some days, 
from their common haunts, as if meditating an escape to their 
native clime. 

Among the other Birds which visit the coast, the most re- 
markable are the Northern Diver, stiled in the poetical lan- 
guage of the Hebrides Mur luaihaill the herdsman of the sea:* 
The Gannet, Pelecanus Bassanus, remarkable for its steady 
majestic flight, the force and velocity with which it darts on 
its prey, from a great altitude, and its constant attendance on 
the herring, whose arrival it never fails to announce : and the 
Petrel, a small bird, about the size of a swallow, which derives 
its name from its fancied resemblance to St. Peter's walking 
on the sea. It has been also called by the more appropriate 
name of Camilla, because it seems to run along the surface of 
the deep. 



*In the same poetical stile the Whale is denominated Muc 
Mhara ; the sow of the ocean. A duck tonnog ; a dweller among 
the waves. An eel Unncu ; the hound of the waves. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 167 

Mare per medium fluctu suspensa tumentf 

Ferret iter ; celeres nee tingeret asquore plantas. 

Virgil. 

She swept the seas, and as she skimmed along, 
Her flying feet unbathed on billows hung. 

Dryden. 

These birds build in the Skelig rocks in the county of Ker- 
ry, and thence wing their flight over the Atlantic ocean, A 
flock of them, in pursuit of a vessel, is considered as the cer- 
tain prognostic of a storm. They fly in the hollow of the 
waves, and seek the shelter of the vessel's stern. " They dive 
well and live on small fishes — are mute by day but clamorous 
in the night. They build in the Orkney islands under loose 
stones in the month of June or July — The inhabitants of the 
Feroe isles draw a wick thro' the bird, which, being lighted 
at one end, serves for a candle, the flame being fed by the fat 
and oil of the body" Nat. Hist. 

The numerous flocks of birds which frequent the cliffs, are 
often deprived of their eggs, in the mode described in the 
poem. Against this practice, as it affords an useful article of 
food, I have nothing to object. But what benevolent mind 
will not protest against the savage custom of shooting these 
inhabitants of the rocks for amusement, or a wicked display of 
marksman dexterity ? It is a great exaggeration of the cruelty 
too, to shoot them during the breeding season, and yet this is 
the season generally preferred ; because the affection of the 
bird for her young, a circumstance which should awaken com- 
passion, exposes her to the approaches of the enemy, and 
When she falls, her hapless progeny must perish of hunger. 
These birds are useless when dead — but when alive they serve 
an important purpose in the economy of nature, by devouring 
garbage, and dead fish, which would otherwise putrify on our 
shores. They shew the fisher where he may most successfully 
cast his nets, while by the variety of their motions, and the 
wild harmony of their notes, they embellish, and enliven the 
ruggedness of the rocks which God has assigned for their ha- 
bitation. Let those who are fond of wantonly destroying these 
harmless creatures, seek a more useful employment in the 
slaughter-house ; or aim at a nobler quarry in the fields of 



168 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

Spain. I blush to reflect that a member of the British Senate, 
at this period of refinement, avowed himself a patron of cock- 
fighting — a practise as disgraceful to a Gentleman, as it is ab- 
horrent from the feelings of a Christian. 

Note XXII. p. 59 

Had ividotved Rathlin s toivers and luon the maid. 
The story on which this episode is founded may be seen in 
Keating's history of Ireland. / 

Rathlin, the Ricina of Ptolemy, lying opposite the shores of 
Ballycastle, is about five miles long and one broad. It is shap- 
ed something like a boot, the toe pointing to the coal works 
of Ballycastle, the heel, where Bruce's castle is situated, to Can- 
tire, and the top to the great western ocean. 

This small island, surrounded as it is by a wild and turbu- 
lent sea, fortified by barriers of inhospitable rock, and con- 
taining little or nothing in itself to provoke the rage either of 
avarice or ambition, might be supposed to have escaped the 
desolating scourge of war. But where is the soil from which 
" the voice of blood" doth not cry ? Rathlin has repeatedly been 
the theatre of battle and murder : and it has felt all the 
fury of the Danish, English, and Hebridian arms. The monas- 
tery which had been established here by Columba, was rava- 
ged and destroyed, with all its shrines, by the piratical Danes 
in 790. It was again ravaged, by a second visitation of these 
robbers) in 973, who, among other atrocities, put the abbot of 
the island to death. Its vicinity to Ireland rendering it an ob- 
ject of importance to an invading enemy, it became a scene of 
contention between the Irish and Albanian Scots. The mem- 
ory of a dreadful massacre, perpetrated by the Campbells, a 
highland clan, is still preserved : and a place called Sloe na Cal- 
leach perpetuates a tradition of the destruction of all the old 
women in the island, by precipitation over the rocks. The 
barbarian author of this atrocity was named Mac Nalreavy. 
During the disturbances in Scotland, between Baliol and Ro- 
bert Bruce, it afforded the latter an asylum in a fortress, whose 
ruins still retain the name of the illustrious fugitive. It was in- 
vaded by the English in 1551 ; but they were obliged to retreat 
with the loss of a ship., and several men. Captain Bagnal was 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 169 

left among the captives, but was soon after released for Sour- 
lebuoy, then a prisoner in Dublin. In 1558, the Lord Deputy 
Thos. Earl of Sussex, made an expedition against the island, 
which proved more successful. He drove out the Scots with 
great carnage, and left a garrison for its defence. 

Spear heads, and brazen swords, the relics of ancient war- 
fare, a silver fibula of good workmanship, now in the museum 
of Trinity College, Dublin, and some tumuli with human bones 
have been discovered in a plain near the centre of the island. 
In one of the tumuli was a stone coffin, and an urn containing 
the residuum of some animal matter, probably the heart of a 
chief who had died on this field of battle. 

In 1758* Mr. Gage, proprietor of the island, gave in a pe- 
tition to parliament, stating the advantages that would result 
from the formation of two harbours, one in Church bay, and 
the other at Ushut. The expence of making the former, which 
would be capable of receiving vessels of 800 tons burden was 
estimated at =£2000 ; the latter, which might receive vessels 
of 100 tons, at £ 3000. Among the advantages resulting from 
the formation of these harbours, it was stated that they would 
answer the purposes of a safe navigation in and out of St. 



*Mr Stewart, a year prior to this, had petitioned parlia- 
ment for aid to build a pier at Ballintoy. A vein of coals had 
been discovered in that neighbourhood — Some coals were also 
found in Rathlin, as Mr. Gage's petition mentioned, and it was 
believed that the collieries of Ballycastle, if fully wrought, 
would produce 100 tons of coals a day. Accordingly great ex- 
ertions were made to obtain parliamentary aid to improve these 
sources of wealth — Mr. Stewart's petition was rejected. That 
of the merchants and manufacturers of Ballycastle was more 
successful. After various reports, and estimates, laid before the 
house of Commons, in which it appeared that =£9541 12s. 
were necessary to reimburse the expences which Mr. Boyd had 
already incurred, and to carry on the work, =£3000 were 
granted by Parliament to Mr. Boyd, on "giving security and 
recognizance before the chief Baron, or one of the Barons of 
X 



170 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

George's channel- — facilitate the coal trade of Ballycastle — af- 
ford accommodation to a frigate, to guard the coast from smug- 
glers, and French privateers, one of which had found a per- 
manent station in Church bay, in the the reign of Queen Anne, 
to the great annoyance of our trade — and encourage the her- 
ring and cod fisheries. The advantage of having a light-house, 
and a public granary was also stated, but notwithstanding, 
the petition was rejected. 

Rathlin, by an estimate made in 1758, contains 2000 
plantation acres, ISO families, a church and parsonage house. 
Mr. Hamilton has observed that it produces excellent barley, 
and fattens a small but delicious breed of sheep. The inhabi- 
tants are simple, laborious, honest, and exceedingly attached 
to their own soil. Kenramer, the western end of the island 
is craggy and hilly, and it's inhabitants are distinguished by 
activity, bodily strength, and self-dependence. The Ushut 
end is barren in its soil, but well supplied with harbours. 
Hence its inhabitants are fishermen, and from their intercourse 
with strangers are more civilized than the natives of Ken- 
ramer. 

There is a belief prevalent among them, that a Green is- 
land rises, every seventh year, out of the sea between Bengore, 
and their island. Many individuals, they say, have distinctly 
seen it adorned with woods and lawns, and erouded with 
people selling yarn, and engaged in the common occupations 
of a fair. Can this idea arise from the catoptric theatre of the 
Fata Morgana ? See Note VIII. p. 148. 

The Glashan fishery has proved unsuccessful this year, 1811, 



his Majesty's court of Exchequer that he will keep said harbour 
in repair for the term of 21 years" Some of the best Work- 
men in England were employed by Mr. Boyd in building the 
pier, and they stated in their report that it was their opinion 
it would last for ages. 

Journal of the Irish commons, from 1757 till 1763. 
The harbour is now choaked with sand, and the pier h 
hastening to ruin. 



NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 1 7 1 

owing to the spells of an old woman of Ila. She has good-na- 
turedly promised to send back the fish for the moderate reward 
of a couple of guineas. 

There are no frogs, rabbits, grouse nor foxes in Rathlin. 
Of the numerous sea-birds which frequent its shores, the Fag- 
liagh, or Puffin, Aka arctka is the most remarkable. It breeds 
in holes which it scoops in the sand, or finds in the rocks. It 
lays only one egg, and exhibits an extraordinary degree of 
affection for its young, which no appearance of danger will 
force it to abandon.* The young one, it is said, often grows 
so fast that it is unable to get out of the aperture at which the 
parent bird enters. When this difficulty occurs, the dam ga- 
thers sorrel, and supplies the young one with that herb, till 
its size be reduced, and its liberation accomplished. 

Rathlin is become an object of curiosity to the Philosophi- 
cal observer on account of the similarity of its shores to those 
of the coast of Antrim, from which, it is supposed, it has been 
severed by some awful convulsion. At Doon point may be 
seen a very beautiful Giant's Causeway in miniature, and a va- 
riety of columns bending like the ribs of a ship reversed. 

The tide of flood in Church bay runs nine hours, the ebb 
only three. At Archill bay S. of Bruce's castle, the reverse 
takes place, the ebb running nine hours, the flood only three. 
The channel between Rathlin and Ballycastle is named Slunck 
saa Marra, the hollow of the sea £ and the cod bank between 
-Rathlin and Ila...Skirnaw. 

Note XXIII. p. 62. 
A royal harp. 
On a very ancient Irish harp, in possession of N. Dalway, esqo 



*"This affection however yield to the paramount neces- 
sity of migration, which begins about the 11th of August, 
and is complete on the 28th of the same month ; when such 
young as cannot fly are left to the mercy of the Peregrine 
Falcon, who watches at the mouth of the holes for the appear- 
ance of the little deserted Puffin, forced by hunger to come 
abroad." Nat. His, 



172 NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 

is the inscription, Ego sum regina cithararum y I am the Queen of 
harps. An elegant engraving of this harp may be seen in 
Mr. Bunting's collection of Irish Melodies. 



END OF NOTES TO BOOK SECOND. 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 



Note I. p. 72. 

Here hapless Hamilton^ lamented name ! 

Tojire volcanic traced the curious frame. 
The Rev. Wm. Hamilton, A.M. F.T.CD. the ingenious 
author of " Letters on the County of Antrim." He was just- 
ly characterized as a gentleman of great activity both of body 
and mind — a zealous magistrate — a lover of letters — of ami- 
able manners — decided loyalty, and steady resolution in op- 
posing the designs of insurrection in the year 1797. His ex- 
ertions rendered him an object of fear and dislike ; and an 
opportunity unhappily presented itself, for the gratification of 
a sanguinary and atrocious revenge. Having crossed the fer- 
ry of Lough Swilly, from Fannet where he resided in the 
County of Donegall, to dine with Dr. Waller, a body of assas- 
sins receiving intelligence of his arrival, surrounded the house 
and poured a volley of small arms, through the windows, in- 
to the parlour, where he was sitting with Dr. Waller and his 
family. Mrs. Waller fell, but Mr. Hamilton was reserved 
for a more cruel fate. Knowing himself to be the object of 
their vengeance, he had retreated to an inner apartment, and 
had unluckily forgotten to secure any weapon of defence ; 
for being a man of vigour and resolution, he would not have 
died, though taken like a deer in the toils, without a desperate 
conflict. Dragged from his retreat, and overcome by the 
superior force of armed ruffians, he fell in the full vigour of 



174 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

his powers, an irreparable loss to society, and the republic of 
letters. 

His work on the County of Antrim, a work to which I 
am so much indebted, is the production of an elegant, and philo- 
sophical mind. The delineations Avhich he has given of some 
of the principal objects of attention on the coast, are drawn 
with a masterly hand. It is only to be regretted that he 
did not render his work complete, by entering more fully into 
the natural and civil history of the county. But his chief 
object was to give a view of the basaltic district, and account 
for its formation, on the principles of the volcanic theory — a 
theory which, though he seems to adopt it with some hesita- 
tion, he applies with great force and ingenuity to an explana- 
tion of basaltic phenomena. 

I embrace the occasion presented by this note, to return 
my grateful acknowledgments to Dr. William Hamilton, 
for the obliging offer of the use of the plates which his 
father, Mr. Hamilton, had engraved, for his letters on the 
County of Antrim. Two of the prints which accompany 
this work, Doon point, and Carrickarede, are copies from 
two of Mr. Hamilton's prints, reduced. The rest are original. 

Note II. p. 75. 
Has Erin too, once felt the burning pest P 
Its records live deep graven on her breast. 
That is, according to those who adopt the volcanic hypo- 
thesis, and a belief in the identity of lava and basalt. Whithurst 
is of opinion that the crater from which the melted matter 
flowed which composes the Giant's Causeway, and the neigh- 
bouring cliffs, has been swallowed up, and lost in the ocean 
at some very remote period of time. He thinks this opinion 
countenanced by an old Irish tradition to the same effect, and 
by the story of the Atlantic island, mentioned in Plutarch's 
life of Solon, and the Timams of Plato. The latter writer 
says that it lay without the pillars of Hercules, was of greater 
magnitude than Lybia and Asia, and more properly to be de- 
nominated a continent than an island : that it was govern- 
ed by powerful kings who had subjugated the neighbouring 
isles, and extended their dominion in Europe, to the Tuscan 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 1?5 

sen, and in Africa, to the borders of the Nile : that with col- 
lected forces they had invaded all the countries within the pil- 
lars of Hercules, but were repelled by the Athenian arms : 
that afterwards, in the course of one disastrous day and night, 
the whole of their military force was destroyed by earth- 
quakes, and inundations, and the Atlantic island itself en- 
gulphedbeneath the ocean. 

*v<;ipcd £s YjPova cruc-pav i^cJ^iav jcj x#reu&\vi?pai> yivof/.iV0V 9 
[ua.q Y.u.'iooiq ;c- vvstlog ^cchiTrrig &X$-%<7Y>,$, to, ts %-cceci VfAW 

arcivTcot; kclto, tjjs SaXxcrayis ov<ra r^avicS-/-. Plato. 

The supposition that Ireland is a fragment of the Atlantic 
isle, may answer the object of poetry, but the data are scarce- 
ly sufficient to justify its adoption in philosophy. 

The volcanic theory is founded on the apparently perfect 
resemblance of lava and basalt. The component principles 
of both have been ascertained by chemical analysis to be near- 
ly the same. It appears from the experiments of Bergman, 
that 



100 parts of the basalt of 
Staffa, contain, 

Silex 50 parts 

Argil 15 

Calx 8 

Magnesia 2 

Iron 25 

100 



100 parts of lava, contain, 

Silex 49 parts. 

Argil. 35 

Calx 4 

Iron 12 

100 



To this it is urged by Hamilton, 
that the fossils which accompany both are the same, viz. black, 
opaque shorl^ puzzolana earth, chrysolite, and various minute 
crystallizations. Each is fusible per se, resists the action of 
acids, and shews no traces of marine exuviae. He observes 
that great quantities of iron and clay, which were for- 
merly combined with sulphur, and formed pyrites, the cause 
of volcanoes, are diffused throughout the coast of Antrim. 
The sulphur has escaped by the action of fire, but the great 



176 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

strata of red ochre, which is only an oxyd of iron, still remain. 
To this he adds, that the strata in contact with basalt have 
characters similar to those which are the known effects of a 
long continued, but not intense heat ; flints are shivery, easily 
broken, and reducible to powder of an opaque, muddy white- 
ness : oftentimes they have incorporated from the basalt, a 
calx of iron which has tinged them with many varieties of a 
red colour. The coal adjoining the basaltes has a glazed ap- 
pearance, of the leaden hue of charred coal, and forms a bright 
cinder, without flame, smoke, or vapour. The lime too, in 
contact with whin dykes, is often granular like marble;* a 
fact ascribed to the action of the whinstone, when in a state of 
fusion by fire. 

It is farther alleged by the supporters of the volcanic hy- 
pothesis, that the vestiges x of fire may be traced in every re- 
gion of the globe. Sir Wm. Hamilton says that wherever 
basaltic pillars are found, a volcano 'must have existed, for 
they are mere lava... They are found in the neighbourhood of 
iEtna, Hecla, and most volcanic mountains (not in Vesuvius, 
Amsterdam and TenerifFe.) The island of St. Helena which is 
supposed to be entirely of volcanic origin, in the disposition of 
its strata, its columns, and globes or bombs of basalt compos- 
ed of concentric lamellae, has so striking a resemblance to the 
coast of Antrim, that a geological description of the one might 
serve for the other. 

Note III. p. 76. 
Whatjlery whirlwinds raging to the sly ! 
IVhat gloiving rods in long projectiles Jly ! 

" The ashes thrown from the volcanoes in Iceland frequent- 
ly covered a space of 20 or 30 miles in length, and half a 
yard in height... Some of the places nearest to the volcanoes 
have been utterly destroyed by their effects — viz. violent 
earthquakes, which generally preceded the eruption — inunda- 
tions of water from the ice melted by the fire ; by the quan- 



* Two instances occur at the Cave-hill, in which this fact 
is not observable. 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 177 

tity of glowing ashes and stones thrown from the mouths of 
the volcanoes, and the streams of burning matter which flow- 
ed down on all sides." 

The first thing usually observed before a new eruption of 
fire is the bursting of the mass of ice with a dreadful noise — 
Flames then burst forth, and lightning and balls of fire issue 
with the smoke, which are seen several miles off". With the 
flames proceed a number of larger and smaller stones, which 
are sometimes thrown to an incredible distance. A round 
stone, an ell in diameter, was thrown a mile from Hecia — and 
another which weighed 290 pounds was thrown to the dis- 
tance of four miles. 

Of the numerous hot spouting water-springs in Iceland, 
Geyser is the most remarkable. It rises from an opening per- 
fectly round, and nineteen feet in diameter. The basin formed 
round it , by a silicious deposition, is in diameter 59 feet. It 
spouts at intervals, and, according to some reports, to the amaz- 
ing height of 60 fathoms, with a force almost incredible. Von 
Troil, D.D. from whose letters these extracts are made, says, 
that he and his companions endeavoured to stop the orifice of 
a less spring, near the Geyser, with stones, but the water gush- 
ed forth in spite of every obstacle in a very ardent manner, 
shewing " how little the weak efforts of man avail when they 
endeavour to prescribe bounds to the works of nature." 

" The Skrida imports large pieces of a mountain tumbling 
down, and destroying the land and houses which lie at the 
foot of it. This happened in 1554, when the whole farm of 
Skidestedr, in Vatulad was ruined, and thirteen people buri- 
ed alive. The Snioflodi, or Snowflood, is similar in character 
and effect to an avalanche, or fall of a glacier among the Alps. 
In 1699, during the night, two farms, in the Syssel of Kiosar 
were buried in the snow with all their inhabitants and cattle." 

Note IV. p. 77. 
Where noiv Catania are thy myrtle lowers. 
Thy purple 'vineyards and thy fields ofjlotvers ? 
Catania has repeatedly felt the destructive effects of earth- 
quakes, and volcanic eruptions from Mount JEtna. In 1669, it 
Y 



178 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

was almost totally destroyed. On the 11th of March, says Bor- 
relli,who was on the spot, some time before the lava burst out, 
after violent earthquakes, and dreadful subterraneous bellowing, 
a rent was opened in the mountain twelve miles long, 
in some places of which, when they threw down stones, 
they could not hear them strike the bottom. He says that 
burning rocks, 60 palms in length, were thrown to the dis- 
tance of a mile, and that the giants, supposed to be buried 
under Mount JEtna, seemed to have renewed their war against 
heaven: that stones of a lesser size were carried upwards of 
three miles ; and that the thunder and lightning from the smoke 
were scarcely less terrible than the noise of the mountain. 
He adds, that after the most violent struggles and sha- 
kings of the whole island, when the lava at last burst through, 
it sprang up into the air to the height of sixty palms. In 
short, he describes that event, as well as the universal ter- 
ror and consternation it occasioned, in terms full of horror. 
For many weeks the sun did not appear, and the day seemed 
to be changed into night. Soon after the lava got vent, which 
was not till four months from the time that the mountain be- 
gan to labour, all these dreadful symptoms abated, and it was 
soon after perfectly quiet. 

He says this deluge of fire, after destroying the finest coun- 
try in Sicily, and sweeping away churches, villages, and con- 
vents, broke over the lofty wails of Catania, and covered up 
five of its bastions, with the intervening curtains. From thence 
pouring down on the city, it destroyed every object it met 
with, overwhelming and burying all in one promiscuous ruin." 

Brydone's Tour. 

The horrors of a volcanic eruption, is a subject to which 
no powers of description are equal. The pictures even of Vir- 
gil, and his master Lucretius, are but feeble representations of 
nature. The loudest peals of artillery are only expiring echoes 
compared to the internal thunders which shake the founda- 
tions of JEtna; and a furnace of melted metal presents but 
au imperfect image of the fused minerals rolling in a crater 
of immense depth, with " a heavy abrupt noise, like what 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD, 179 

might be imagined of a sea of quick-silver dashing among un- 
even rocks." The explosion of the cliffs, the cataracts of fire 
rushing down with irresistible fury, the dreary darkness which 
overshadows the land at noonday, the showers of rocks driven 
in fiery tempests, and instantly converting a land which is "as 
the garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness," and the ming- 
led cries of alarm and despair which precede the silence of 
death, all form a scene of horror, of which the native of a 
clime like this, free as it is from every dreadful visitation of 
nature, can form but a very inadequate idea, and which even 
those who* have seen it can but faintly pourtray. 

Note V. p. 78. 

Not loith less ruin on the blasted plain, 
See fell Vesuvius showers of cinders rain. 
On the 24th of August, 79, Herculaneum and Pompeia 
"were totally overwhelmed by an earthquake and eruption of 
Vesuvius. The former, by that and succeeding eruptions, was 
covered with a stratum of ashes and lava, resembling grey 
stone, to the depth of 24 feet, and the latter with a similar 
stratum of about half that thickness. In 1713, Herculaneum 
was discovered by some labourers, who, in digging a well, 
struck against a statue on the benches of a theatre, 80 feet be- 
low the surface. Pompeia was discovered about 40 years 
after. From these two singular repositories has been dug an 
immense variety of curiosities, in high preservation; busts, 
statues, and pictures ; domestic, musical, and chirurgical in- 
struments; incinerated rolls of papyrus, which may yet, per- 
haps, unfold some of those works of antiquity, whose loss we 
deplore ; the apparatus of art, and the ornaments of luxury. 
Thus it is that Nature, while she seems to destroy, preserves 
and renovates, and that the most violent convulsions in the na- 
tural, as well as political world, are followed by salutary conse- 
quences. While the fire and sword of the barbarians were ra- 
vaging the fields of Italy, these two cities lay hid from their 
fury : and Nature, as if willing to reward the ingenuity of art, 
while she covered them with the mantle of destruction, kept 



180 NOTES TO EOOK SECOND. 

them close enshrined in her bosom, during the lapse of nearly 
seventeen centuries, till a new age of taste arose to appreciate 
their value, and res.cue them from oblivion. 

Note VI. p. 79. 
• Verona s sage directs his adverse prore. 
The elder Pliny who commanded the Roman fleet at Mise- 
num, in 79, inspired by that philosophical enthusiasm which 
elevates the mind above all fear of danger or death, on hear- 
ing of the eruption at Vesuvius, instantly set sail in a small 
boat, that he might witness the phenomenon. The picture giv- 
en of him by the younger Pliny is highly characteristic of a 
Roman and a philosopher. Properat illuc unde alii fugiunt, 
&c....His life became the forfeit of his courage. He fell, pro- 
bably by inhaling carbonic gas, which, as has been noticed by. 
Dr. Davy, is evolved during a volcanic eruption. How differ- 
ent were the spirit and temper of the Roman, from those of 
Muschenbroeck, who, on receiving the shock of a small elec- 
tric bowl, declared " he would not take a second shock for the 
kingdom of France !" The courage of modern philosophers, 
however, would not shrink from a comparison with that of the 
most renowned ancients. " Mr. Boze, says Priestly, with a 
truly philosophical heroism, worthy of Empedocles, said he 
wished he might die by the electric shock, that the account of 
his death might furnish an article for the memoirs of the 
French Academy of Sciences. But it is not given to every elec- 
trician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Rich- 
man !" This philosopher was struck dead by the electric fluid 
which he was drawing into his room for the purposes of expe- 
riment, Aug. 6, 1 753. The example of Spalding who perish- 
ed in a diving-bell, and of De Rozier, by a fall from a baloon, 
as well as that of many other Aeronauts, proves that the spirit 
of philosophical enterprize has encreased rather than degene- 
rated. 

Note VII. p. 81. 
And Ocean rolls his ivild infuriate Jlood, 
Where Galloons toivers this moment glittering stood- 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 18 1 

"In the year 1746, Calloa, a considerable garrison town, 
and sea-port in Peru, containing 5000 inhabitants, was violent- 
ly shook by an earthquake, on the 28th of October; and the 
people had no sooner began to recover from the terror oc- 
casioned by the horrid convulsion, but the sea rolled in 
upon them in mountainous waves, and put a final period to 
their existence; for they all perished, except 200 who were 
providentially saved on board of ships and fishing boats lying 
in the harbour. The elevation of this extraordinary tide was 
such as conveyed ships of burden over the garrison walls, the 
towers, and the town distant from the sea. One in particular 
which arrived from Chili the preceding day, was conveyed to 
the foot of the mountains, and there remained on dry ground. 
The flood of water flowed over the town with such rapidity 
that it tore up the foundations of all the buildings, except those 
of the two grand gates, and some few parts of the garrison 
walls, which remain as the only monuments of that dreadful ca- 
tastrophe. All the other parts of the town were so complete- 
ly erased, and the parts covered by sand and gravel, as totally 
concealed the appearance of a town having ever existed upon 
the spot of ground where Calloa stood." 

Whitehurst, 

Note VIII. p. 83. 

Here the red torrent by the rapid shocks 

Of frigid waters changed to pillared rock. 
The supposition that columnar basalt was formed by the 
sudden refrigeration of a stream of lava coming in contact with 
the ocean, is totally irreconcileable to reason and experience. 
None of the numerous streams of lava which have flowed into 
the Mediterranean have been known to assume such an appear- 
ance, but on the contrary, to present that confused and irre- 
gular form which the rencounter of two such adverse elements 
may be justly supposed to produce. It has been conjectured, 
with a greater air of probability, that it was suffered to cool 
gradually, and crystallize in the immense vaults, or in the very 
focus of the volcano where it was originally fused, and that 



182 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

subsequent convulsions rending the craters asunder, and bury- 
ing >^e half of them in the sea, left the other half of a continu- 
ed series of craters, to form the cliffs from the Giants' Cause- 
way to Bengore. But alas ! how will this beautiful and grand 
idea apply to those basaltic columns which stand at a consider- 
able distance from the sea, and on the very summit of the 
most elevated ground in their vicinity, and where there is no 
appearance of a crater, or any other vestige of a volcano ? 

To the hypothesis that basaltes were formed by crystalliza- 
tion, Kirwan has opposed very formidable objections. He ob- 
serves that crystals are lamellar or vitreous in their texture, 
have a smooth polished surface, a regular form, determinate 
angles, and a homogeneous texture throughout. Basaltes have 
none of these characters. They present an irregular earthy 
grain, show no vestige of lamellaj in their fracture, exhibit a 
great variety of forms, being trigonal, quadrangular, pentago- 
nal, hexagonal, octagonal, &c. without any common angle. 
Besides, they are articulated, and if Mr. Hamilton's observation 
be correct, of a looser and softer texture at the top than the 
bottom. To this it is added, that that excellent crystallogra- 
phist, Rome De Lisle, has excluded basaltes from the rank of 
crystals. 

The other principal objections which have been made to 
the volcanic theory, are briefly these. Basaltes have no inter- 
nal marks of fusion ; their fracture is destitute of all such lustre 
and such internal cavities as fused earthy substances possess. 
They contain calcareous earth which should have been calci- 
ned, zeolites which retain their appropriate water, and horn 
blend crystals which are destructible at a very low heat. Nei- 
ther calcareous spar, nor zeolite is found in modern lava. With 
respect to the flints which are white, opake, and shivery, as if 
they had been acted on by fire ; it is answered, that they are 
so often found in countries decidedly not volcanic, that this in- 
dication connot be deemed of great moment. As to the char- 
jing of the coal, it could not be caused by a superincumbent 
mass of melted basalt j for the pressure of the melted matter 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 183 

would prevent the escape of the elastic fluids necessary to its 
charred state. 

See this subject discussed at length in the second appendix 
of Kirwan's Elements of Mineralogy. 

Note IX. p. 84. 
Or if thy genius, Whiston, right divined. 

Among the wild fancies of this theorist, is the idea that co- 
mets are the local hell of the damned, whose " delighted spir- 
its," by their approximation to the sun, are subjected to an in- 
tolerable heat, but when, in time, their torments become their 
element, their careering vehicle, rushing to its aphelion, trans- 
ports them " to thrilling regions of the thick-ribbed ice ;" and 
thus they are exposed through all eternity to the horrible vicis- 
situdes of frost and fire. 

A doctrine similar to this in the mouth of Claudio pleading 
with Isabella, is powerful and affecting • but how could a man 
of science, and a philosopher indulge such reveries ? 

Note X. p. 84. 
Neptunian Kirtvan, green leme's pride. 
The Neptunian theory, which involves the formation of ba- 
salt, is founded on historical records, particularly the book of 
holy writ ; on numerous proofs of the universal deluge, writ- 
ten in indelible characters on the face of the globe, on the im- 
possibility of certain appearances in many minerals having 
been caused by fusion, or any cause but solution ; and on the 
position and structure of the strata which contain evident indi- 
cations of their having been formed by mechanical and chemi- 
cal depositions. Great quantities of shells and other marine 
exuviae are found in all parts of the earth, and at very consi- 
derable elevations above the surface of the sea. Kirwan, 
the most able and ingenious of Neptunists, supposes that the 
whole superficial parts of the earth were originally held in a 
state of solution by water, heated to 33° or more ; that the 
metallic, saline, and inflammable substances crystallized by the 
laws of elective attraction, and according to the predominant 



1S4 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

proportion of their ingredients, formed primitive mountains : 
that during their crystallitzation, a prodigious heat was evolved ; 
and oxygen and azote (nitrogen) being disengaged, formed the 
atmosphere ; the absorption of carbonic acid, which was for- 
med by the union of oxygen and carbon, produced the crys- 
tallization and deposition of the calcareous strata. After the 
first emersion of the land, the creation of fishes took place. 
<•* Life with the shelly tribes its course began ;" and secon- 
dary mountains containing organic remains, were made by 
the deposition of materials less disposed to crystallize than 
the primitive. On the retreat of the sea, the earth be- 
came covered with vegetables, and peopled with animals. He 
accounts for basaltes by the calces of iron reduced by their 
contact with bitumen being precipitated, with the argillace- 
ous and silicious principles, on the summits of mountains 
not yet emerged. " During desiccation, the basaltic masses thus 
formed, split into columns ; in other places they covered the 
carbonaceous masses already deposited, and by absorbing much 
of their bitumen, rendered them less inflammable ; and hence 
the connexion which the ingenious Werner observed between 
basalt and coal." The Neptunist supposes he has lately found 
a conclusive argument to support his theory, in the cavities fil- 
led with water, which are discovered in the centre of ba- 
saltic columns, at a distance from the sea. But does not 
the presence of the water exhibit a proof of the rock's 
permeability, rather than of its aqueous formation ? 

Note XI. p. 85. 

With poles erect the rounded planet spun. 

This was a favourite idea of Burnet's, and a very impor- 
tant one in the explanation of his philosophical romance enti- 
tled a theory of the earth. "The perpetual spring, says he, 
which belonged to the golden age, and to paradise, is an hap- 
piness this present earth cannot pretend to, nor is capable of, 
unless we could transfer the sun from the ecliptic, or, which is - 
as easy, persuade the earth to change its posture to the sun. 
If Archimedes had found a place to plant his machines in, for 
removing of the earth, all that I should have desired of him 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 185 

would have been only to have given it an heave at one end, 
and set it a little to rights with the sun, that we might have 
enjoyed the comforts of a perpetual spring, which we have 
lost by its dislocation ever since the deluge." 

Keil has ably exposed the error of this idea, and shown 
that the present inclination of the axis of the earth to the 
plane of the ecliptic, being analogous to that of the other plan- 
ets, is in the position, or nearly so, in which it was originally 
placed, and that it is adapted, in the best possible manner, for 
an equal distribution of light and heat in all her various re- 
gions. Were the pole perpendicular to the plane of the eclip- 
tic, the arctic regions would be chained in eternal frost, and 
the torrid zone consumed with intolerable heat ; while coun- 
tries like England and Ireland, never enjoying more warmth 
than they receive at the time of the equinoxes, could ripen 
few of their vegetable productions, and would consequently 
become barren and deserted. 

Note XII. p. 87. 
On Erlns moors the "wondering feasants rear 
Th* enormous antlers of the stranger deer. 
The stupendous horns so frequently found in marl pits, in 
every part of Ireland, have long excited the attention of the 
curious. Those in possession of the Bishop of Dromore mea- 
sure 14^ feet in circumference, from tip to tip, and the cord 
10 feet. The thigh bone, and some of the other bones, which 
were found in the same marly stratum from which the horns 
were dug, when compared with those of a horse 17 hands 
high, are one fourth longer. The frontal bone too is lar- 
ger in the same proportion, and hence, 4 inches being a palm, 
the height of the ancient deer may be determined to be seven 
feet, one inch. An entire skeleton of this creature, has not, 
as far as I have been able to ascertain, been yet discovered, but 
the relics which yet remain, give us a magnificent idea of his 
magnitude, when he roved through his forests; spread his 
broad antlers to the breeze, and bounded with the velocity ef 
Z 



186 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

the wind on his native hills. But his race and his memorial 
have perished. 

The Moose, or American deer, (Cervus Alces) was long 
thought to be of the same species as this noble animal. But our 
naturalist's, Mr. Templeton's friendly communications on this 
subject, have enabled me to observe that there is a decided and 
characteristic difference, and that its horns show it to be distinct 
from all the present known species of the Genus Cervus. The 
Moose deer measures only five feet six inches. His horns want 
the trifurcated brow antlers, and the very long gradually ta- 
pering snags of the Irish horns. ^ 

The discovery of these horns has afforded much room for 
speculation. Some have conjectured from the size of the crea- 
ture to which they belonged, that it was more probably the 
inhabitant of a continent, than of a small island like Ireland, 
and hence an argument for the Atlantis of Plato. Others sup- 
pose they have lain in the ground since the universal deluge ; 
a supposition not to be admitted, when we reflect on the fra- 
gile and destructible nature of horn and bone, and the nar- 
row compass of the country to which they are confined. 
Dr. Thomas Molyneux, in a paper published in the Philoso- 
phical Transactions, more judiciously thinks that our ancient 
deer existed in the land long since the deluge ; that most of 
them may have perished by a pestilential distemper, similar to 
that which is known to prove so destructive to the rein deer 
of Lapland ; and that the survivors may have been extermina- 
ted by the shafts or the dogs of the hunter. Wolves have for 
many centuries been unknown in England, and the race of the 
wolf-dog in Ireland is nearly extinct. That the deer were in- 
digenous and gregarious, appears from their relics being found 
in all parts of the country, and sometimes in tolerable num- 
bers, no fewer than three pairs of horns having been dug up 
in the space of one acre, in the county of Meath. The rapid 
decay of vegetable matter, and the accumulation of the detri- 
tus brought from the hills by rains and floods, will account 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 187 

fpr the depth at which they now lie buried beneath the sur- 
face. 

Note XIII. p. 87. 
A?id blue basalt is stamped ivith Amman s horn* 

The rocks which compose the shores of Portrush, abound, 
with impressions of the cornu Ammonis, and hence the Nep- 
tunists think they derive a conclusive argument in sup- 
port of their theory. The Huttonian however contends, that 
ihe rock having those impressions, differs widely from ba- 
salt in its grain and structure, in its fracture which is conchoi- 
dal, and in its having nothing of a sparry or crystallized struc- 
ture. It does not graduate into common basalt by impercepti- 
ble gradations ; for the line of contact between the two sub- 
stances may be distinctly traced, as I had an opportunity of 
observing in company with Dr. Ogilvy, in the Summer of 
1809. Professor Playfair, magnum et venerabile nomen> from 
some specimens of the rock which fell under his inspection in 
Edinburgh, infers " that the rock containing the shells, is the 
schistus or stratified stone, which serves as the base of the ba- 
saltes, and which has acquired a high degree of induration, by 
the vicinity of the great ignited mass of whinstone." 

Note XIV. p. 88. 

Here raised erect majestic o'er the brine, 
There curved to beauty s ever-varying line. 

While the volcanist supposes he has found the cause of the 
columnarity of basalt in crystallization, the Neptunist attri° 
butes it to the desiccation, and shrinking of the basaltic mass, 
in a mode analogous to the drying of starch and clay. While 
the columns, say they, were yet in a soft state, if any concus- 
sion in the ground took place, they would be thrown from 
their vertical position, and form a concave, or convex, or twis- 
ted appearance, according to the surface on which they fell. 
Those of Doon are convex, while those of Booshala, a rock near 



188 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

the entrance of Fingal's grotto, are concave like the ribs of a 
vessel. Hence the allusion to the bark of Alcinous : 

»5 oi paXa, crftsdov viXvSz 7rovro7ro^og yjjyj, 
Ti/6<pcc diaKopsvYi' wis ^2 crKZ$ov ijA^ EvoG-ifcS-av 
Og j&iv Ac&ctv gS-jjKgj Jtj i^p^axj-zv snpSs 

XilPl K0t,TCt,7S'PYiK-i' l)\CC<r(X,S* 

Odyss. XIII. I. 161. 

Swift as a swallow sweeps the liquid way, 
The winged pinnace shot along the sea, 
The God arrests her with a sudden stroke, 
And roots her down an everlasting rock. 

Pope's Odyss. 

Kirwan, on the authority of Soulavie, attributes the incur- 
vation of pillars to the presence of a granite nucleus ; and 
though this nucleus is sometimes only in one pillar, its pres- 
sure would cause the next pillar to bend, and the next, till 
the whole group assumed the same form. This observation, he 
continues, proves that all the pillars were originally in a soft 
state, that they formed a coherent mass, and could not conse- 
quently assume the columnar form by crystallization, but by 
disruption. It also deserves to be mentioned, that the gran- 
ite nucleus did not appear in the least altered, a sign surely 
that it had experienced no heat, and consequently that the 
softness of the basalt did not proceed from its having been 
in a state of fusion. 

Soulavie made his observations on the mountains of Au- 
traignes. No granite nucleus has ever been discovered in the 
county of Antrim basalt. Could Soulavie mistake one of those 
basaltic bombs which are often lodged in trap, and which 
compose large rocks, for granite ? The above explanation of 
the cause of incurved pillars, is not satisfactory, for they are 
found in situations where no fall or sinking could have taken 
place, and in the midst of perpendicular columns, as in the 
£ace of Port na Spania, where there is a group of converg? 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 189 

ing pillars called the fa*, from their similitude to that instru- 
ment. At Drimnakill, a conical hill of Murlogh, E. of Fair- 
head, the pillars are inclined like great pieces of artillery. 

Near Fox Town, on the N. W. shores of the peninsula of 
Innishowen, quadrangular blocks of quartz are arranged at a 
high angle, in a manner so artificial, that they might be mis- 
taken for the squared stones of a building, and, at a little 
distance, for the inclined pillars of Drimnakill. 

Note XV. p. 89. 
As years on years in time's ivide orbit tvheel, 
They dread no change, and no abrasion feel. 

This, like several other things in the poem, is said only 
poetically, and in conformity to the principles of the Neptu- 
nian theory. Some of the defenders of this theory have main- 
tained, in opposition to the Huttonians, that the columns of 
the Giants' Causeway still preserve the original sharpness of 
their angles, though exposed for so many ages to the continu- 
al action of the waves. This observation however must be un- 
derstood with some limitations. It was remarked by Dr. Sa- 
muel Foley, in a paper published in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions, more than 100 years ago, that those pillars, " :.ich 
lye low to the sea are washed smooth" With respect to the 
general disintegration of the coast, there cannot be any ques- 
tion, though in some places where it is guarded by dykes and 
basaltic mounds, the detritus is not so apparent. The^, steps 
of decay may be distinctly traced in the Cave-hill, and the 
Knocogh, and on the shores of Carrickfergus and Larne. Some 
of the gigantic columns of Ballygelly, already totter to their 
fall, and the shores to the W. of Garron point exhibit awful 
proofs of the ravages made by the destroyer. The fall of 
columns at Fairhead, within the memory of persons now liv- 
ing, has carried away nearly an acre of surface, and the spec- 
tator has only to behold that grand promontory to be convin- 
ced that the whole base of it is a mass of ruins. The base of 
the cliffs at P©rt Noffer are strewed with a loose debris, and 



190 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

the ground beneath is sometimes deeply furrowed by the fall 
of rocky fragments from above. The isolated rocks on which 
the castles of Dunsevric and Dunluce stand, have mouldered 
from beneath the walls, and in many places left their founda- 
tions exposed and bare. Dr. Davy has observed in his geologi- 
cal lectures, that at Banyavenagh, a high basaltic hill in the 
county of Derry, and at Fairhead, a rapid destruction is going 
on, by the decomposition of the alkaline portion of their ba- 
salt. The same eminent philosopher, in opposition to the doc- 
trine of general disintegration, has remarked, that " the high- 
est mountains capped with eternal snow, are hermetically pre- 
served from the effects of the weather." But there is more 
beauty than truth'in the remark. The Skrida of Iceland, and 
the Avalanche of the Alps, show that even those giant sons 
of earth will one day bow their heads, and descend from their 
elevation. The torrents that sweep down their sides, the 
storms that roar around their brow, and the internal heat of 
the earth, instruments more effectual than the vinegar and 
fire of Hannibal, are the agents with which nature is mi- 
ning their foundations, and working their fall. The her- 
metical sealing itself, the vast masses of ice and snow which 
seem to shield them from the attacks of the weather, are of- 
ten their principal destroyers. For when they become unable 
to support the encreasing accumulation of new matter, they 
fall by their own gravity, carrying with them the rocks on 
which they had reposed, and sometimes burying whole villa- 
ges beneath their ruin. 

" The law of decay, says Playfair, suffers no exception ; 
the elements of all bodies were once loose and unconnected, 
and to the same state nature has appointed that they should all 
return." 

" It affords no presumption against the reality of this pro- 
cess, that in respect of man, it is too slow to be immediate- 
ly perceived. The utmost portion of it to which our experi- 
ence can extend, is evanescent in comparison with the whole, 
and must be regarded as the momentary increment of a vast 
progression, circumscribed by no other limits than the dura- 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. l9i 

tion of the world. Time performs the office of integrating the 
infinitesimal parts of which this progression is made up ; it 
collects them into one sum, and produces from them an 
amount greater than any that can be assigned." 

Note XVI. p. S9. 
Druids of science, to the muse disclose 
From ivhat vast source tli overwhelming deh'ge rose. 
No subject has puzzled theorists more than the general de- 
luge, or afforded room for a greater variety of opinions. The 
great difficulties are to find enough of water to cover the 
highest mountains, and afterwards reduce it to its present 
limits. Burnet ascribes it to the general disruption of the 
crust of the original earth, in which the aqueous element 
was contained in the same manner as the matter cf an egg is 
enclosed within its shell. Leibnitz and Hally supposed ihat a 
comet was instrumental in elevating the waters, and that by a 
communication of its heat, it gave them new solvent pow- 
ers. Whiston, with great ingenuity, has laboured to de- 
monstrate that a comet descending in the plane of the eclip- 
tic, towards its perihelion, passed just before the earth on 
the day of the deluge, and by its attractive powers, cau- 
sed such a commotion among the waters concealed be- 
neath the terrestrial shell, that they burst from their prison 
with irresistible force ; while the globe itself being enveloped 
in the tail and atmosphere of the comet, was deluged by tor- 
rents from above. Kirwan supposes it was caused by a mira- 
culous effusion of water both from the clouds, and from the 
great abysses of the Southern ocean below the equator, rush- 
ing to the North, overspreading the Arctic regions, and thence 
descending to the south. Dr. Keil computed that twentyeight 
oceans would be necessary to cover the whole earth to the 
height of the loftiest mountains. It has been ascertained since 
the days of Keil, that there is forty-eight times as much water 
on the globe as was then supposed to exist; a quantity more 
than enough to produce the effects ascribed to the Mosaic de- 



192 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

luge. Sir Henry Englefield endeavours to account for it by 
the heat and expansion of a large body of water enclosed in 
the interior of the earth, and his hypothesis, he thinks, singu- 
larly accords with the narrative of Moses : " for the sudden 
expansion of the internal waters would, of course, force them 
up through the chasms of the exterior crust in dreadful jets 
and torrents, while their heat would cause such vapours to as- 
cend into the atmosphere, as when condensed, would produce 
torrents of rain beyond our conception." 

Note XVII. p. 89. 

When siink the strata^ ivhat prevailing cause 

Deposed them adverse to attraction s laivs? 
If the earth were once in a fluid chaotic state, and if me- 
chanical deposition alone were concerned in the formation of 
the strata, we should expect to find them all arranged in lay- 
ers, like the coats of an onion, according to their specific gra- 
vities. Woodward has actually maintained this to be the fact, 
though a very partial knowledge of the component principles 
of the globe might have shown his error. Burnet, on the con- 
trary, supposed the whole fabric of the present earth to be a 
vast mass of irregularity, and confusion, the ruins of his imagi- 
nary crust. But whatever cause may have operated in forming 
the strata, the modern geologist, who pursues his investiga- 
tions, not in the narrow bounds of his closet, or laboratory, 
but in the profundities of the mine, and among the precipices 
of the mountain, sees that nature displays not less beauty, or- 
der, and design in their structure and arrangement, than in the 
organization of the animal and vegetable tribes, or in the laws 
by which she balances the word, and preserves the harmony 
of the system. 

Note XVIII. p. 90. 

He taught that central fires upheaved the earth 
From oceaiis depths^ and gave these ivonders birth. 
The Huttonian theory, which owes so much of its merit 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 193 

and celebrity to the eloquent illustrations of Playfair, may be 
comprised in three propositions : 1. That the strata of the pre- 
sent globe were formed from the debris of an antecedent 
earth, which was worn down by the action of the elements, 
carried into the abysses of the ocean, and there deposited in 
horizontal strata. 2. That these strata were fused and conso- 
lidated by subaqueous heat, and their gasses prevented from 
escaping by the pressure of the superincumbent ocean. S. 
That the strata being thus consolidated were afterwards eleva- 
ted by the expansion of central fires to their present alti- 
tude, and in this operation they were broken, dislocated, and 
distorted into their present forms. 

This theory, so bold and so captivating, is in some of its 
chief principles, by no means novel or original. The gradu- 
al waste and renovation of things must have been familiar to 
the earliest observers of nature. They formed a part of the 
philosophy of Pythagoras and Epicurus: 

Nee species cuique sua manet : rerumque novatrix, 

Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras, 

Nee perit in tanto quicquam (mihi credite) mundo, 

Sed variat, faciemque novat. 

Ovid. 

Nature knows 

No stedfast motion, but or ebbs or flows, 

Ever in motion, she destroys her old, 

And casts new figures in another mould. 

Dryden. 

See also Lucretius, Jib ii. 1. 66. 

A belief in the existence of subterraneous fire is as old as 
the fable of Tartarus, or the first volcanic eruption. Robert 
Hook was the first who supposed it employed in crystallizing 
the strata formed by the debris of a more ancient world, un- 
der the compression of water. Hutton embraced the idea, and 
on it he built his system. 

The principal objection to this theory is drawn from the 
known tendency of fire to an equilibrium, the difficulty, or ra- 

A A 



194 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

The principal objection to this theory is drawn from the 
known tendency of fire to an equilibrium, the difficulty, or ra- 
ther impossibility of keeping it in an insulated state, and from 
a consideration of the immense quantity of that element requi- 
red to produce the effect. Did a central fire exist, the tempe- 
rature of the earth would be constantly encreasing, and we 
might at length indulge reasonable apprehensions that the idea 
of Whiston would be realized, and that the globe would be 
converted into glass. It is also objected that the Huttonian 
destroys all chemical agency in the deposition of the strata, 
and makes gneiss, mica-slate, and clay-slate mechanical depo- 
sites, though undoubtedly chemical, and not composed of ma- 
terials older than themselves. It is urged still farther, that 
though the carbonate of lime has been fused under pressure, 
by Sir James Hal], there are many substances containing no vo- 
latile principle, whose fusion compression could not assist ; and 
that substances of most difficult fusion are penetrated by other 
substances which are most easily fused. Thus gold and silver 
shoot in various beautiful ramifications through quartz ; gar- 
nets are found with their crystalline form unimpaired in gra- 
nite, and the cubic sulphuret of iron is imbedded in slate* 5 . 

To this it might be added that those strata of arenaceou- 
limestone, known in the county of Antrim by the name of 
Mulatto, abounding in water-worn pebbles, and various orga- 
nic remains, were evidently never in a state of fusion. Of all 
depositions it is one the most decidedly mechanical. Granting 
then that the lime and basalt by which they are overtopped, 
were once fused, how did those strata escape the action of an 
Clement to which it lay nearer than the lime and basalt, and 
which was so powerful as to penetrate and fuse mountains a 
thousand feet above their level ? 

Note XIX. p. 93. 
So forcey through many a rent and opening pore ', 
From earth's vast cauldrons gushed each jluid ore. 



* See a comparative view of the Neptunian and Huttonian 
theories, by that able chemist Mr. Murray, of Edinburgh. 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 195 

The formation of metals and minerals in veins, was ascri- 
bed by Becher, in his Physica subterranea, to subterraneous 
vapours, producing a change on such stony and earthy sub- 
stances, as they meet in their ascent. Lehman supposed that all 
veins were only the shoots and branches of an immense trunk 
placed in the centre of the earth The Huttonian is nearly of 
the same opinion. He supposes that clefts and fissures were 
formed in the strata during the time of their consolidation, 
or by the violence which they suffered at their elevation, and 
that these clefts and fissures were afterwards filled by melted 
matter thrown up from the mineral regions. " That which 
was nearest to the sides would soonest lose its heat. The simi- 
lar substances, also, would unite while this process was going 
forward, and would crystallize, as in other cases of congela- 
tion, from the sides toward the interior." 

TKe process of crystallization is better and more beauti- 
fully explained by the Wernerian. 

" When a fluid holds in solution the integrant molecules of 
several different substances, the molecules of one substance 
pass between those of the others, and each obeying its own 
laws of attraction, crystallizes separately. Besides the particu- 
lar instances of this which occur in our elaboratories, there is 
not a metalliferous vein which does not furnish examples of it. 
Granite, and a number of other aggregate rocks are striking 
examples of this. Nature presents us with a very interesting 
fact in substances confusedly crystallized, which contain, dis- 
seminated through them, others in a state of perfect and regu- 
lar crystallization, such as compact granular limestone, con- 
taining crystals of quartz, octahedral iron ore, and often other 
substances such as masses of gyps, which contain the same, or 
crystals of boracite, of quartz, of carbonate of lime, or lastly 
of Arragonite, as in Spain ; such as masses of porphyry, &c. 
In a solution which contains the integrant molecules of manv 
different substances, but one of them in greater abundance 
than the rest, the cause which has prevented the crystalliza- 
tion of the last of these has had no effect on the others. Is it 
not natural to conclude, that after the hasty and confused 



196 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

precipitation of the most abundant substance, the precipitated 
mass being of a soft texture, has been penetrated with the so- 
lution loaded with the integrant molecules of the other sub- 
stances which have afterwards united and been crystallized ? 
This kind of union is known to mineralogists by the name of 
elective attraction, or affinity. This explanation appears to me 
to be applicable to a great number of facts which we observe 
in nature; such for example as the formation of flint in nodules 
of chalk, or in larger masses in carbonate of lime." 

Vide Traite de Mineralogie, par M. le Comte de Bournon. 
Quoted from Werner's theory of the formation of veins. 
Note, p. 256. 

Whin Dykes, which form an important feature in the mine- 
ralogy of the County of Antrim are supposed by the Hutto- 
nians to be caused by torrents of unerupted lava, projected 
from the central regions. — To this hypothesis Dr. Richardson 
opposes four arguments, the last of which he deems conclusive. 
First — "The difference of materials in Dykes, which from their 
proximity, should have been filled from the same source. 
Second — The difference in grain and internal construction of 
the materials which compose their sides and interior parts is 
deemed perfectly incompatible with the high state of fluidity in 
which the lava must have been to fill up such vast chasms of 
diminutive breadth. Third — They produce no such change on 
the substances with which they come in contact as might be 
expected from the contiguity of so glowing a mass. Fourth— 
All substances when ignited, are in a high state of dilatation : 
this is followed when they cool by a contraction by which they 
occupy less space than when heated ; consequently our dykes 
ought not to fill the chasms which they occupy — but nothing 
like this is observed ; the dyke and the contiguous matter, 
whatever it be, are solidly united together, forming but one 
mass." 

To the first and second objections It may be answered that 
the difference of materials is so trifling, all the dykes being 
composed of whin under some of its modifications, that it does 
not deserve to be taken into consideration. In the discussion. 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 197 

of a grand geological question, such microscopic differences 
become evanescent, especially when it is considered that dif- 
ferences as striking may be found in rocks which belong un- 
questionably to the same stratum. It is not necessary to 
suppose all the chasms filled by a simultaneous operation of 
nature. Successive eruptions will account for the variety of 
grain, and of internal construction, if they may not be better 
explained by the common laws of crystallization. As to 
the third objection, Playfair has long since observed that the 
strata are frequently both dislocated and indurated in contact 
with the dykes. The Dr. himself acknowledges the disloca- 
tion in several places in the County of Antrim, and it is well 
known that the lime in contact with the dykes has become so 
granular in its structure, that it might be mistaken for marble. 
Instances certainly do occur where this fact is not observable, 
but they may be considered as anomalies in the science which 
farther knowledge will enable us to explain. Playfair observes 
that " the induration of the sides of these veins is such that they 
become more durable than the vein itself, so that the whinstone 
has been worn away by the washing of the waves, and has left 
the sides standing up, with an empty space like a ditch between 
them." An illustration of this fact may be observed on the shore 
of Carrickfergus, in a small dyke which is worn down so much 
that it seems as if the keel of a vessel had produced the long ex- 
cavation it has left. 

The fourth argument in which the Dr. has placed his maiu 
battle, and which he thinks irresistible, is most unfortunately 
for his cause, founded in error. All substances are not di- 
lated by heat. The powerful expansion of water when it is 
changed to ice is well known. Wedgwood's pyrometer is 
constructed on the principle of clay's being contracted by the 
operation of fire. Cast Iron, bismuth, and other metals are 
more dense in their fused than in their solid state. Now, iron 
and clay enter so largely into the composition of whin, 
that so far from expecting a contraction, we should look for 
an expansion of the fused mass during its conversion to 
a state of solidity ! 



198 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

The Dr. farther observes that the " dyke and contiguous 
matter, whatever it be, are solidly united together forming but 
one mass*" 

Dr. Richardson's well known zeal for the establishment 
of facts, must plead the apology of those who, actuated 
by a similar zeal, venture to question the accuracy even of so 
accurate an observer as he. Whin dykes traverse so great a 
variety of substances that we should not expect them always 
to exhibit the same phenomena at their contacts. In some 
places they do adhere firmly as if welded into each wall of 
the vein as is the case at Port-rush, and Salisbury Craig, 
near Edinburgh. But in a great many cases there is a soft- 
ening and decay of the materials with which they are in con- 
tact. It has been already mentioned that the dyke is some- 
times worn down, so as to leave an excavation like a ditch. 
But, I believe, it happens more frequently that the contiguous 
strata are worn down, and the dyke left standing. This is 
obviously the case with the chief dyke at the Cave-hill : and 
numerous similar intances occur on the Carrickfergus shore. 

Note XX. p. 95. 

On Abyssinian hills, redundant Nile 
Once sazv the Delta s beauteous landscapes smile- 
It was understood so early as the time of Herodotus, that 
the lower part of Egypt, and particularly the Delta, was for- 
med by deposition of the mud of Nile ; and the origin of Hol- 
land is traced to a similar cause. " Very extensive mechanical 
formations are daily taking place on the coasts, and even in 
some places at a considerable distance from them, by the wa- 
ters of the ocean. In the Baltic or East sea, many appearan- 
ces of this kind are observed. Thus the bay of Fulbaka, which 
was navigated with boats, within the memory of man, is now 
filled up and covered with grass. Several harbours in Lap- 
land that formerly admitted vessels, are now three or four 
thousand paces from the sea ; and at Helsingor, there are iron 
works in places which were covered by the sea, about 80 



NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 199 

years ago. The whole of the ancient kingdom of Prussia ap- 
pears to have been formed in this manner ; it is said that the 
sea reached as far as Culm, within the period of human histo- 
ry. The city of Dantzic, several hundred years ago, was close 
on the sea shore." 

Jameson's Geognosy. 

Charlevoix observes that when Samuel de Champlain foun- 
ded the city of Quebec, in 1608, "the tide rose sometimes 
to the foot of the rock. Since that time the river has retired 
by degrees, and left a great space dry, where they have built 
the lower city." 

The progress of disintegration is apparent in every region 
of the world. The mountains are sinking beneath the effects 
of continual corrosion ; their debris forms the allu\ r ial soil of 
which so many extensive districts are composed... new Deltas 
and new islands rise from the ruin ; but these again will be 
worn away in the lapse of vears, be carried into the abysses 
of the ocean, and, according to the Huttonian theory, form the 
strata of a renovated globe. 

Note XXI. p. 96. 

Ye fair-haired wanderers cf the skies sublime^ 

For ever roll^ nor fear the steps of thne. 
Sir I. Newton has inferred from the perturbing forces of 
the planets that the system of the universe has a principle of 
destruction lodged in itself, and that without the immediate 
interposition of omnipotence, the whole will fall into irre- 
parable confusion. The late discoveries of La Grange and 
La Place have shown the error of this opinion, and demon- 
strated from the principle of universal gravitation that " all 
the variations in our system are periodical ; that they are con- 
fined within certain limits ; and consist of alternate diminu- 
tions and increase. The orbits of the planets change not only 
their position, but even their magnitude and their form : the 
longer axis of each has a 6low angular motion ; and though its 
length remains fixed, the shorter axis increases and diminishes, 



200 NOTES TO BOOK THIRD. 

so that the form of the orbit approaches that of a circle, and 
recedes from it by turns. In the same manner, the obliquity 
of the ecliptic, and the inclination of the planetary orbits, are 
subject to change ; but the changes are small, and being first in 
one direction, and then in the opposite, they can never accu- 
mulate so as to produce a permanent or a progressive alteration. 
Thus, in the celestial motions, no room is left for the introduc- 
tion of disorder ; no irregularity or disturbance, arising from, 
the mutual action of the planets, is permitted to increase beyond 
certain limits, but each of them, in time, affords a correction 
for itself. The general order is constant, in the midst of the 
variation of the parts; and, in the language of La Place, there 
is a certain mean condition, about which our system perpetu- 
ally oscillates, performing small vibrations on each side of it, 
and never receding from it far. The system is thus endowed 
with a stability, which can resist the lapse of unlimited dura- 
tion ; it can only perish by an external cause, and by the intro- 
duction of laws, of which at present no vestige is to be traced." 

" The geological system of Dr. Hutton, resembles, in many 
respects, that which appears to preside over the heavenly mo- 
tions. In both we perceive continual vicissitude and change, 
but confined within certain limits, and never departing far 
from a certain mean condition, which is such, that, in the lapse 
of time, the deviations from it on the one side, must become 
just equal to the deviations from it on the other. In both, a 
provision is made for duration of unlimited extent, and the 
lapse of time has no effect to wear out or destroy a machine, 
constructed with so much wisdom. Where the movements are 
all so perfect, their beginning and end must be alike invisible." 

Playfair's Illustrations. 



END OF THE NOTES. 



SUPPLEMENTARY. 

Page 31. 
Thy Tercy hail ivith age and honor crowned, 
Loved by the muse and by the muse renotvned. 

Since writing this couplet, the good, the pious, the philan- 
thropic Bishop Percy — the friend and the favourite of the 
muses, the patron and the guide of genius, alas ! its only 
patron of rank in the north of Ireland ! ! ! the most blame- 
less shepherd of Messiah's flock, is no more ! Tho' born on 
another soil he loved Ireland as the land of his birth. A less 
eccentric, and less dazzling orb than Lord Bristol, another 
Englishman, Bishop of Londonderry, whose taste adorned 
our shores, but more regular, more beautiful, and shedding 
a more serene, and more permanent splendour, his genius 
enlightened, his example edified, and his benevolence blessed 
the land on which he shone. Dromore has the peculiar felicity, 
and boast, that one of her Bishops was the eloquent Jeremy 
Taylor, and another the enlightened and benevolent Percy. 
Bishop Hall, these are great examples! If thy soul aspire to 
the double immortality of earth and heaven emulate, or sur- 
pass their virtues. 

Page 117. 
For Charles O'Neil read Shane O'Demis O'Neil. 

Page 120. 
It should have been mentioned that Monro did not obtain 
possession of Carrick-Fergus till April 1642, and consequently, 
that all our historians are in an error who impute to him the 
massacre in Island Magee. 

B B 



202 



SUPPLEMENTARY. 



Page 139. 
On a more attentive examination of the caves, at the Cave- 
hill, I have no hesitation in concluding them to be the work of 
art. The first is quadrangular, 18 feet deep, 21 broad, 9 high. 
The second which stands above the first, is 1\ feet deep, 8^ 
broad, and 6 high, Near it on the same level is an excava- 
tion which appears to be the commencement of a new cave ; 
and above it, in the face of the precipice, where it is acces- 
sible only by a very expert climber, or by the assistance of 
a rope from above, is a third, which was explored by my 
servant Hugh Watts, from whom I have obtained the follow- 
ing particulars. It consists of two apartments ; the former 
nbout the size of the first cave, or scarcely so roomy. From 
this there is a narrow passage to the left, and a -steep descent 
about 6 feet perpendicular to the inner apartment which is 
£8 feet long, 16 broad, and 7f; high. It does not penetrate 
die rock in a line at right angles to the entrance, but takes a 
winding direction, and at the extremity has an opening which 
appears like the mouth of another cave, situated as far below 
the level of the entrance as the inner is below the outer 
apartment. There are also some caves of very difficult access at 
the Knockagh, and another shaped like an- oven at the water- 
fall of Woodburn. As these caves are all in amygdaloid, a 
friable rock full of cavities, they may have been excavated 
without any extraordinary labour : they were no doubt the 
abodes of our savage ancestors, airy and comfortable abodes 
too, compared to those caverns so often discovered in the 
fiat ground in which they were wont to burrow. Who knows 
but the third cave may have been the princely residence of the 
great Cham Fodhla, or Conn of the hundred battles ? — a 
country box perhaps of the magnificent Brian Boiromhe J 
The gay parterres, and breezy ter* aces which surround it 
would afford fine morning exercise to the ladies of Ins court. 
Page 144. 
Of the huge pillar at Fair-head, an ingenious friend has 
observed that it is the largest pillar in the world. Its spe- 
cific gravity being about 2, 8, its weight could be easily 
calculated, and it is so situated that a vessel or rnh of any 
buidcn could be brought within 200 yards of it. If we lived 



SUPPLEMENTARY. 203 

in the time of the Grecian or P.oman splendour it would be 
erected as a monument to some public benefactor." 

As the reader may not be incurious to compare the size of 
this basaltic prism with some of those huge masses of stone 
on which human ingenuity has been exercised, the following 
measurements of a few of the most remarkable are annexed, 

Pompey's pillar diameter 9 feet, shaft 90, pedestal 20 high. 
The sphinx, according to Pliny, the head 102 feet in circum- 
ference, 62 high from the belly, 143 long. 

Sesostris raised six gigantic statues, each of one stone, 
two of them representing himself and wife, each SO cubits 
high, the other four his sons, each 20 crfblts. But these mag- 
nificent works were far inferior to those of Amasls one of his 
successors, he removed from Memphis to the temple of Mi- 
nerva at Sais, a house of one stone, 21 cubits in front, 14 
deep, and 8 high; in the interior 13, 12, and 5. 2000 men 
were employed three years in transporting this extraordinary 
edifice. He had a colossal statue 15 feet long, in a supine pos- 
ture, to be laid before the temple of Vulcan, and on the 
same basis, two statues cut out of the same stone standing on 
each side of the fjreat one. 

The temple of Diana at Ephesus contained 127 columns 
each 60 feet high. 

Pliny says that in one of the Egyptian temples of Jupiter was 
an obelisk consisting of four smaragds or emeralds, the whole 
40 cubits high, and 4 broad at the base. The colossus of 
Rhodes was 70 cubits high; the brazen statue of Nero 120 
feet. 

Some of the finest ccluirms in Rome were brought from 
Egypt. In 1 586 an old obelisk was erected which had been 
formerly dedicated to Julius Caesar — one solid stone of ophite 
107 feet high, 12 broad at the base, and 8 at the top. It 
was transported at the expense of Pope Sixius, the 5th, from 
the left side of the Vatican to a more eminent situation, where 
k now stand?. 

The labour of the Indians in raising great stones, without 
the aid of mechanical powers is very surprising. Acosta re- 






201 



SUPPLEMENTARY. 



lates that he measured one at Tiaguanaca which was $5 feet 
long-, 18 broad and 6 thick, and he affirms that in their stateliest 
edifices there were many others of much vaster magnitude. 
See a treatise on Mechanics, by (I believe) Bishop Wilkins. 

" The pedestal of Peter the Great's statue at Petersburg, is 
estimated at 500 tons weight. It is 42 feet broad at the base, 
36 at the top, 21 thick and 17 high. It was four miles from 
the water, but was conveyed on rollers to the river Neva, 
where the ice rendered its farther transportation easy. The 
colossal statue on Horseback, and the enormous rock he is 
ascending in the midst of a city of his own creation, appears 
to me, one of the most magnificent ideas that ever struck a 
sovereign." Letter of a- friend. 

The following barometrical measurement of Benmore has 
also been obligingly communicated by a friend. The Mercury 
at the low station, which was 10 feet from the level of the sea, 
stood at 29, 31, its temperature 56° of Fahrenheit's Thermo- 
meter,' temperature of the air 60°. Height of the Mercury at 
the upper station 23, 74, its temperature 53°. That of the 
air 54'. 

By the usual mode of finding the result of this process-, 
it appears that Benmore is only 545 feet high. 

Page 163. 

To the facts recorded of Rathlin let the following be 
added from Archdale's Monasticon Hibernicum. 

St. Comgail ianded on this Island with an intent to erect 
a cell, but he was instantly seized by a band of 30 military 
men, who holding his hands, drove him out of the Island. 
St. Colman succeeded better, A. D. 546. In 630, St. Segene 
abbot of Hy, repaired its abbey. 

In August 1575 General Morris sailed from Carrick- 
Fergus to Rathlin, took its castle, spoiled the country and 
killed £40 men. See the History and Antiquities of Carrick- 
Fergus by S. M'Skimin. The description of the round tower 
at Antrim, p. 12 7, quoted from the Belfast Magazine, was 
written by the same author. 

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